Fullbringer
by Zanka no Tachi 31
Summary: Ichigo has lost his mother due to the hollow grand fisher and saw the whole thing. he finally snaps watching his mother get beaten by the hollow and gains fullbring powers. IchigoXOc
1. Chapter 1

This is my first fic so be nice. my skills aren't as good as others. so enjoy

* * *

"normal talking"

"_thoughts"_

* * *

Ichigo was happily humming to himself while walking hand in hand with his mother on his way home from karate practice, when he saw a little girl about to fall into the river he was walking past. His thoughts came to mind and he thought he should try and stop the little girl from falling in. Ichigo without giving his mother warning suddenly started running down the riverbank.

"Wait don't fall in!" Ichigo cried urgently trying to call out to the little girl. However before he could get there an object looming beneath the surface came out. Ichigo took a step back horrified at what he was seeing before him. There it was a monster it had a white mask on its face or so he assumed it to be and a tentacle lure coming off the top of its head. It had bird like feet and green fur covering its body.

"You smell awfully tasty for a human, I wonder what you would taste like, strawberries perhaps?" the monster laughed trying to scare the child in front off him. "However that one behind you seems to be trying to come and get you, I think I'll leave you for desert" the beast said hungrily.

"Stay away from him!" Masaki said with a warning tone in her voice.

"Oh lovely its not so often I get two enriched souls to feed off" replied the monster greedily. It then charged at Masaki who was lifting up her left arm that seemed to have some kind of pendant dangling off a small chain on her wrist.

As Masaki lifted her arm up she tried to call on her Quincy powers although something seemed to be stopping her as though it were draining her of her strength. "_Damn it just has to be now" _Masaki thought as the beast neared her. "_I just have to save Ichigo… a soul reapers coming…good, I might be able to get away with Ichigo". _Instantly Masaki began evading the attacks coming from the monster.

"Damn, bloody soul reapers coming, guess I'll only get to have one of you today, there's always plenty more souls" the beast said annoyed. It quickened its pace to near shunpo speeds trying to catch the rapidly dodging human before it. It hadn't quite seen a human like this one before, it was sure to be delightful.

Masaki was tiring quickly and needed to outlast the hollow, though it did not seem luck were to be on her side this fateful day as the hollow quickened its pace again and tore into Masaki's flesh. "_What!"_ she thought. "_Blut vene should have been active…I've been weakening but how? Damn…there's nothing I can do now…the reapers close, Ichigo should be safe. Ugh! I can't move and I'm starting to feel a bit sleepy…probably the hollows doing". _Masaki's eyes continued to slowly close before her head fell forwards and she lost consciousness.

Ichigo just sat there in horror as this thing tore his mother to pieces before his very eyes, and he finally snapped. Reishi erupted from Ichigo in a dark black and crimson red, it all began to gather in his hand and began to coalesce with itself before four prongs came out the sides. He raised himself from his knees to his feet in an awkward motion and took a few steps forward before letting loose a scream and threw the now spinning disk at the monster before promptly collapsing on the ground falling unconscious.

The disk flew towards the hollow before hitting it hard in it's back eliciting a scream from it. The reishi disk pushed into its back for a few seconds before dissipating. "_What was that?" _the hollow thought looking around for the source only to find the reaper approaching. "_Well never mind that now, I've gotta scram before I'm caught" _the hollow then opened a garganta and jumped through to the sands of Heuco Mundo.

The soul reaper landed to see the bloody sight of Masaki and a seemingly unconscious Ichigo. "Damn I didn't make it in time" the soul reaper said as he looked around. "Although I could swear I felt two hollow signatures not just the one I saw then." The soul reaper continued to talk to himself.

"_H…hol…hollows…so that's…what it's called" _Ichigo thought as he regained consciousness momentarily before falling into the dark again.

The soul reaper left an hour later still trying to figure out where the second hollow signature came from although he did not prevail in finding his answers and left troubled, only to be distracted and suddenly forget about it by another hollow signature nearby.

It was around this time that Ichigo regained some of his awareness and began to drag himself over to where his mother lay to try and wake her.

"M…mum…wake up…please," Ichigo sniffled now crying, tears pouring down his face "please" he continued to beg only to start crying hysterically.

A short while later Ichigo regained enough of himself to slowly think over the events that just transpired before his eyes not long ago.

"_I'm going to learn how to fight those things and become strong enough to protect everyone else because its my fault I wasn't enough to save mum"_ he thought with determination "_and I'm going to learn how to use that weird power I used as well to get stronger…"_ Ichigo paused a moment to overthink the brief conversation the reaper had with himself. "_Wait! He said there were two hollows nearby…does that mean my power was like the hollows, or was there really another nearby…if so I better keep it a secret for everyone's sake"_ Ichigo finished his internal monologue and grasped onto his mothers wrist, the one that held her pendant and accidentally pulled it off his mothers wrist and into his grip before he fell asleep from exhaustion.


	2. Chapter 2

"talking"

"_Thoughts"_

* * *

"_W…where…am I?" _Ichigo groggily thought.

Ichigo was slowly regaining consciousness as he opened and closed his eyes waving off the sleepiness that was upon him. Stretching and sitting up he realized that he was in a hospital and was dressed in a patient's attire, the bed robe covering his body underneath the thin sheets of the bed. Suddenly he remembered that days events and instantly froze up staring into the space in front of him wide eyed. He'd let her down, he couldn't save her, he was useless.

Suddenly the door at the end of the room past the curtains of all the patient beds slammed open and running footsteps were heard as well as two small crying voices.

"Ichigo!" a voice was spoken worriedly.

Suddenly the person came into view holding two young girls by the names of Karin and Yuzu. They were both crying profusely until they saw their brother and jumped out of their father Isshin's arms and ran over to their brother encompassing him in a hug.

"Are you ok?" they both shouted at him only getting someone in the distance telling them to be quite. Never the less Ichigo answered with a small nod of his head.

"Hey what's that in your hand Ichigo?" Isshin asked curiously.

Ichigo then looked down at his hands to find out what his father was talking about and saw his hand gripped tightly around a small object in his hand. He slowly unclenched his fist to see the same pendant that was on his mother's wrist when the hollow struck.

"It was on mum's wrist when the thing killed her" he replied hesitating from the memories of the event.

_"Hmm…so she had it with her after all…if so then how did the hollow kill her it was far too weak to even scratch her…"_ he thought for a moment. "Well Ichigo the doctor says your fine to go you just need to get dressed and we can leave," Isshin paused for a moment overlooking the absent look on his sons face, to which he then asked "are you sure you're ok?" He just received a short nod before guiding the younger twins out of the room to wait for Ichigo.

* * *

(Outside the room)

As Isshin continued to comfort the young girls Karin stopped sobbing enough for her to ask Isshin where mummy was. All he could do was say that she wouldn't be coming home and that she was in a better place.

"Why?" asked yuzu "why isn't mummy going to come home?"

Isshin sighed before he answered and said "A big bad monster came to hurt Ichigo an mummy, but mummy saved Ichigo, although she didn't make it and is now in heaven" Isshin half told the truth knowing that she was either in soul society however unlikely the circumstances or digested by the notorious hollow.

The door next to them slowly opened to reveal a fully clothed Ichigo with his mother's pendant around his neck. He had slightly altered the length with some string he had found in one of the trays next to the bed.

"Come on now, lets go home" Isshin said tiredly.

* * *

(At Kurosaki residence)

Ichigo now lay down on his bed fingering the pendant that hung around his neck, thinking about the events that transpired earlier that day.

It came to him vividly, the memory of the masked monster, his mums extreme athletic ability, and then last of all himself…that power he needed to learn how to use it, and fast if he's going to protect his family and friends. But first where would he do it…the park maybe, no…possibly the abandoned warehouses just out of town, yes that was the perfect spot. All he needed to do now was figure out how he used that power. Sadness? Maybe. The will to protect his mother? Closer, but not quite. His newfound pride in his power to protect combined with the last one seems like…

Suddenly a burst of spiritual energy appeared within him and around the pendant he was holding. It became slightly larger, big enough to fill his currently small hand. Smiling he knew that this object would be the source of his power, what he used to channel his power through.

"_Tomorrow…tomorrow is when I begin…when I begin to learn about my new abilities and become strong enough to protect you all" _he thought about his friends and family and his mouth twisted into a faint smile before faltering, he began to tear up about his mothers death and cried himself to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a new day and a new beginning.

* * *

(Next Day)

Today the Kurosaki household remained silent as they continued to mourn over their now dearly departed Kurosaki Masaki. Karin and Yuzu remained at their fathers side who tried to comfort them and come to terms with it himself at her passing. However the eldest child of the family was out walking among the warehouses trying to find a suitable spot for him to train.

Finally Ichigo found it the perfect place to train, so that an incident like his mothers wouldn't happen again. Determination filled hi eyes as he entered the warehouse. When inside he looked around to find it mostly empty with nothing but a few concrete slabs, metal beams and poles, rubble and the dust as well as dead bugs piled on top.

Ichigo sighed to himself and thought "_It's gonna be a while before I clean this place up, oh well I'll just start getting used to my abilities for now_" and so with that his training began.


	3. Chapter 3

Originally i had chapter 2 and 3 together but i decided to split it. i'm also going to try and lengthen the chapters as well but we'll see when it comes to it.

* * *

(1 year later)

A white gel like substance now covered Ichigo's sweating form. Everyday after school for the past year he had come to the warehouse to train himself to get stronger. He had succeeded in becoming stronger and still continued to train past his limits.

Over the past year he had discovered a few things about his fullbring abilities and its limits. So far he had mastered a high-speed technique which he called lightbringer simply because every time he used it a flash of green would come from where his feet had 'touched' the ground or air, and depending on how much power he put into it, a small sound could be heard reminiscent of a sonic boom. He also had a few very powerful attacks that would surely reduce some buildings to rubble if he were to go all out in one attack. However that would lead to him being drained of energy and unable to move.

"Hey Ichigo" a familiar voice yelled.

"Hey Tatsuki," he replied tiredly "what are you doing here".

"To kick your ass of course" she replied with a smirk while laying her school bag against the wall of the warehouse.

"That stopped happening ten months ago" Ichigo also smirked to which Tatsuki pouted "I thought you'd remember that".

"Yeah weeellll…you cheated" she replied with a victorious look, head held high. "You probably used your abilities against me" she said while walking over to him.

"No I didn't…fine you win…but I still didn't use them" Ichigo shouted.

"Jeez you didn't have to get so loud it was a bit of fun" Tatsuki mumbled.

"Still heard you" Ichigo grinned.

"Yeah what ever you still have teach me how to fly" Tatsuki replied.

* * *

(Flashback)

About two months after Ichigo beat Tatsuki in karate practice she would follow him to see if he did any other training outside of the dojo. Although every time

She would try to follow him he would up and vanish as though she were chasing a figment of her imagination. However one day he stopped and confronted her in an alley about following him, to which she answered "I've been following you because I know your going somewhere and something's going on with you, because ever since that happened you've just disappeared for hours on end and then returned like nothings happened" she said angrily in an almost shouting voice.

"Nothings wrong," Ichigo replied trying to put her at ease, however her face just contorted from an angry scowl to one that was of a madman/woman "seriously" he said a little worried about the state of the person in front of him, she just leapt and grabbed him tackling him to the ground.

"Don't lie," she said "People aren't ok when they disappear for hours on end everyday like you do" sounding a little worried now.

Looking over her quickly Ichigo noticed that she was genuinely worried about him, making it much harder for him to continue not tell her. However while her emotions were pouring out of her so did energy similar that of a hollows.

"Do you know what you just did?" he asked her curiously. After that she calmed down a little and then began to look scared of him as though she thought he was about to hurt her.

"No" she replied shakily, while getting up off of Ichigo and backing away a little.

"Have you ever seen someone close to you die" Ichigo said warily stepping into dangerous territory.

This caught Tatsuki off guard, unsure of how to reply until she shook her head.

_"This isn't right_," Ichigo thought _"either that or my theory on how I got my powers is wrong…maybe her parents had contact with a hollow before she was born, that would also explain how I got my powers seeing as how mum could see them and evaded it as though it were second nature"._

"Ugh" Ichigo yelled in frustration "I got it wrong".

"Got what wrong," Tatsuki said getting a little pissed "are you saying it's a bad thing that someone close to me hasn't died".

"No" he yelled in fear of being consumed by Tatsuki's wrath "nononononono, what I mean is that I might be able to tell you what I've been doing"

How the hell does that have to do with someone being dead or not" she yelled at him.

"It doesn't I swear," Ichigo replied terrified of the aura the girl before him was emitting "I just thought that for someone to have abilities like mine they had to see someone die".

"Oh," Tatsuki replied stupidly, and then it hit her "wait! abilities like yours?" she said confusedly.

"Yeah look" Ichigo said and held his hand out summoning some reishi to his hand so it began to emit a black and red substance to which Tatsuki decided to poke and prod as would an analyst.

"What is it?" she said while slipping her hand through it.

While finding it amusing to just see the look on her face he decided to reply "Beats me, although I heard some shinigami talking about the stuff, called it reiryoku or some other weird shit," he said casually "I sensed some stuff in you too, like this" he said holding his hand forward "although I'd stay away from them if I were you though, cause we've got similar energy to the hollows they kill".

"What?" Tatsuki said sounding as though that was the biggest load of shit she had heard in her life…but then again there was that stuff Ichigo was holding 'reiryoku' as he called it.

"Never mind that for now," Ichigo said waving his hand in front of him trying to bring Tatsuki's thought processes back to the current conversation "meet me tomorrow after school with your karate gloves." He said turning around and started to head off to presumably home.

"But those are only for competition" she said curious as to why he wanted her karate gloves.

"Don't you want to find out what I'm doing with my time after school" Ichigo said prompting her to finish up because he wanted to go.

"Designing party tricks?" Tatsuki asked in a bored manner, while starting to look at her nails indicating she was trying to get a rise out of him.

"What," Ichigo cried shocked that she would think of him like that "no, I'm not designing party tricks" he sighed "look…just do it and I'll show you some stuff" he said and then instantly turned around and ran off before she could reply.

* * *

(Flashback end)

And now here they were with both their fullbrings. It took a little while for Tatsuki to come to terms with the circumstances, but it all worked out. Her fullbring at the moment looked like two globes of bladed black and blue reishi, while Ichigo's fullbring was the form of white gel like armor that covered his body with a black under layer where the armor didn't quite cover visible. (Think about the armor he has when he completes his training with Xcution) He also had a blade with a white bandage like hilt, his enlarged Quincy cross in the centre of the guard that has a diamond like shape due to the fact of its immersion in a black and red substance that twisted and turned like smoke passing through air in a gentle manner. And a short blade extending out the top of the guard. (again think about the blade in the cannon just a little different with appearance.

"I already told you it's not flying because if it was I wouldn't be standing in mid air" Ichigo replied with a slightly annoyed tone.

"Yeah yeah I'm just pushin' your buttons" Tatsuki said with a smirk.

"Alright then, lets begin" Ichigo said happy that he had a friend like him.

* * *

(Some time later)

"I think I've almost got it" Tatsuki panted collapsing to the floor drenched in sweat.

"Riiigght" Ichigo said standing a little ways across the warehouse from her with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

"Heyyy," Tatsuki whined "don't look at me like that".

"Fine, all right but come on its pretty easy" Ichigo replied with a small laugh.

"Well come on over and I'll show you who's better at kicking the others ass" Tatsuki yelled.

"You can't even move" Ichigo deadpanned.

"…ehhh" Tatsuki stumbled on her thoughts and then replied confidently "…so I can still kick it".

"Come on let's go" Ichigo said heading to the prone form of Tatsuki.

A large grin came to Ichigo's face as he thought of something. Instead of heading to Tatsuki he swerved around her to head to his bag and pick it up.

"Hey! Where are you going, you've gotta help me up" Tatsuki said.

"Do I?" Ichigo replied.

"Yes" Tatsuki yelled.

"Alright, funs over now" Ichigo said bringing a slightly relieved look to Tatsuki's face. He headed over to her and helped her up before they both left the warehouse.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey next chapters up it's almost twice as long as the last so enjoy

* * *

"Talking"

"_Thoughts"_

* * *

(Five years later, beginning of cannon)

"It's near" said the shinigami. Through the window stepped a short person clearly female in stature, with raven hair, lavender eyes, dressed in a shihakusho with a sword at her left hip.

Only to moments later have her back kicked in by one black haired girl called Karin. "Near my ass! You jump into my room through a wall and threaten to pull your sword out, and pretend to ignore me, your classy but not the best of thieves" Karin yelled at the dumbfounded shinigami in front of her.

"Y…you can see me, no you kicked me" the shinigami said trying to contain her surprise as she stood back on her feet and began to look at Karin analytically all while still confused as to how this human could see and touch her.

"Ohhh great a spirit not a cosplayer" Karin groaned eliciting a sharp scowl from the shinigami in front of her.

"I do not understand this term 'cosplayer' could you tell me?" the shinigami questioned Karin, instantly placing her hand on Karin's face twisting and turning it to odd angles. "Strange for a human to see me…she must be defective in some way" the shinigami said not aware of the humans face morph into one of anger and a twitching eye.

"Gah," Karin yelled shoving the shinigami away "first of all a 'cosplayer' is someone who likes to play dress ups far too much, and I am not defective" she screamed at the seemingly oblivious shinigami.

"Karin!" Isshin yelled jumping into the room "don't let your hormones take control and start yelling profanities" causing a stir of confusion on the shinigami's face.

"First of all," Karin began quietly before yelling at the top of her lungs "my hormones aren't taking control, I wasn't screaming profanities at the top of my lungs and get out goat chin" Karin the jumped up kicking her father in the face getting a small yelp before he was sent tumbling out the door. "Now you," Karin pointed at the confused shinigami in a much quieter and deadly tone "who are you and what are you doing here?"

"The answer is simple" the shinigami replied completely unfased by Karin's expression while getting out a note pad and several coloured crayons much to Karin's annoyance and began to draw "I am a shinigami sent here to send wholes or plus spirits to the soul society while also killing and purifying hollows" the shinigami explained. "Pluses are the newly departed people of this world, I am here to send them over to soul society," the shinigami said "Hollows are evil spirits that devour pluses or human souls in order to feed themselves," the shinigami looked at Karin to see if she was following her explanation through artistic drawings only to see the look of horror and amusement on her face. "What's so funny?" she asked.

"Why do your drawings suck? Or more importantly why are they all rabbits?" Karin said before laughing hysterically, and collapsing to the floor "they're all so bad that its kind of sad for you to look at it like a work of art".

Eye twitching the shinigami replied in a strained voice "Bakudo one sai!"

"Huh?" Karin said before falling to the ground. She began rolling all over the room yelling at the shinigami to let her go.

Standing up and grinning evily the shinigami said, "that is an example of one of the many kido spells I can cast," sounding slightly triumphant she continued "and only shinigami can use them, and don't bother trying to get out of it you won't be able to escape until it wears off or I release you".

"Fine" Karin said with a huff and she stopped rolling around. "So those things you kill what are they again?"

"Hollows are monsters devoid of their heart and contain no care for the well being of human life, they characteristically have a hole somewhere in their body and a mask on their face, they can take all manner of forms" answered the shinigami.

"So like that thing you killed earlier today?" Karin asked "and before you answer let me out of your damn magic trick?" reverting to her yell again.

"No I can't guarantee that you won't do something stupid, and yes to the first question although I must ask you where you were? I don't remember seeing you" said the shinigami in a curious voice.

"Well then I must have seen you cause I saw some person slice the thing in half before disappearing" Karin said beginning to fidget with the kido placed on her again. "And why won't you let me go I'm not overly harmful or stupid".

"There's another hollow nearby that's why I won't let you go, but I can't seem to sense it anymore, its as though something's blocking out its power" the shinigami answered her while also stating the reason to her prolonged stay.

"Must be Ichi-nii" Karin mumbled, "He seems to know what they are as well…" Karin continued before trailing off.

"ROAR"

"Hey did you hear that?" Karin asked the shinigami urgently.

"No I didn't you must be…" the shinigami replied before stopping to hear the deafening roar of the hollow. "How didn't I hear it before?" the shinigami said rushing out the door only for Yuzu to collapse in front of it before warning her.

"Run…" Yuzu said before passing out.

"Yuzu!" Karin yelled. "Hey shinigami let me go!"

However the shinigami had already left to go down the stairs failing to hear her cries. So Karin did the only thing she could thin of she slowly began forcing herself to her knees and began shuffling towards the door to check on Yuzu before heading downstairs and checking on her father. Once she reached the stairs she mentally groaned at not being able to walk before attempting to head down the stairs only to land face flat on the bottom floor. The shinigami turned around in surprise to tell her to go back but saw Karin on her feet looking through a giant hole in the wall where a hollow was holding her father Isshin.

"Arggg!" Karin yelled as she slowly but surely began to break the restraints the kido had placed on her.

"Don't force it you might damage your soul!" the shinigami yelled at her, only for Karin to not pay attention and break the spell "_Impossible…a human broke a kido spell…through sheer will power, this girl is strong that's for sure, maybe she's the hollow's target, it has to be"._

Karin bounded forward to grab her baseball bat and take a swing at the hollow only to be batted to the side like a measly fly. Rolling along the ground in pain she failed to notice the hollow reaching out to grab her. Before the hollow could reach her though the shinigami had jumped into the air and taken a slice at the arm that was holding Isshin causing it to roar in pain and drop Isshin make him fall and lose consciousness as his head connected with the grounds hard surface. The hollow then disappeared through a black void behind it.

"Dad" Karin yelled racing over to him. She may not like him at times but she did care deeply for her father.

"He'll be alright the hollow failed to eat your fathers soul," the shinigami said calmly before continuing "I've never seen a hollow so dead set on devouring a soul before, what I think is happening is that it's really only after your soul at the moment".

"What?" Karin said in shock at the revelation. "Are you saying its all my fault? Don't say accusations unless you can prove them, now help me get Dad back inside" she demanded.

"I can't, at least not yet, that hollows going to come back within minutes and I have to kill it" the shinigami said.

* * *

"Do you think we should help them yet?" Tatsuki asked the orange haired teen next to her hoping the answer would be yes.

"…Not yet," Ichigo hesitated "we're close enough that should something serious happen with that low level we could kill it easily before anyone comes to harm, besides there's that weirdo over there watching as well, I think he's the owner of the Shouten on the other side of town" Ichigo replied in a calm tone.

Ichigo and Tatsuki had been out at a movie with some friends that night when they detected a hollow near the house and had immediately started to head to Ichigo's, only to detect a shinigami presence nearby. They decided to change their plan of action from killing the hollow to using bringer light to land on a nearby house roof to watch it play out unless assistance was clearly needed. Ichigo and Tatsuki had almost gone to help out a couple of times due to the close call with Isshin and Karin, however the shinigami proved to be capable at handling her job so far.

"Ok" Tatsuki replied in a slightly disappointed tone.

"What?" Ichigo questioned grinning slightly "Afraid we won't be able to save your number one fan" finishing the sentence with a slight smirk.

"Shut up" Tatsuki sighed and punched him lightly.

For as long as she remembered Karin had looked up to her like no other simply for the fact that she used to be able to beat up her brother, later on other aspects came in to play and they became great friends however that's a story for another time.

* * *

"It's coming back?" Karin said in disbelief cradling her fathers head.

"I'm afraid so" replied the shinigami not wavering in the slightest, or so Karin thought.

Just then a black void appeared alerting them of the hollow's return. The hollow stepped out before sizing up the shinigami and human in front of it, letting out a growl as it began to move towards them. The shinigami dashed forwards hoping to take down the hollow in one swing, only for her to miss her target by mere centimeters and slash through its shoulder like appendage instead. Miscalculating what she should do should such a thing happen, the shinigami was slashed at with one of the hollows claw like hands tearing through her flesh like paper, leaving the shinigami in no condition to fight.

"Damn, now we're all going to die" the shinigami said in a disappointed tone.

"What do you mean?" Karin shouted, "Isn't there something I can do?" she began to panick.

"Well there is one thing," the shinigami said "but it's very dangerous and you might not survive" she stated.

"I'll do it," Karin shouted "I'll do anything to make sure Yuzu and Dad are safe".

"Very well come here then," the shinigami said while propping herself up against the lamp post "You must run my zanpakuto through your heart so I can give you some of my powers so you can try kill the hollow" stated the shinigami while holding up her sword.

"Ok, but just to warn you if this doesn't work my brother will probably try to find you and kill you, shinigami" Karin stated.

"He won't get the chance if we're dead" the shinigami said "and by the way my names Rukia…Rukia Kuchiki not shinigami" said the newly named Rukia.

"I'm Karin Kurosaki" Karin said before running the zanpakuto through her chest.

* * *

(Moments before)

"We should go now and save them before they get themselves killed" Tatsuki stated in a serious tone.

"Yeah…wait what are they doing?" Ichigo said wide-eyed as he watched his sister slightly stumble over to the shinigami and talk a bit before running the sword through her chest. "Oh shit!" Ichigo said as a bright light appeared engulfing the shinigami and his sister.

* * *

Karin suddenly flashed past the hollow appearing behind it while cleanly lopping its arm off in one strike with apparent ease.

"Not so tough now huh" Karin stated before slicing the hollow directly down the middle instantly killing it. She then watched it disintegrate before turning to Rukia whom was staring with wide eyes at her.

"_I only meant to give her half and she took all of my power" _Rukia though shocked and now dressed in a white kimono.

"I killed it" Karin stated holding two katana in her hands before falling to the ground because of exhaustion.

Clap, clap, clap. "My, my, my, well I do believe a round of applause is in order for the young Kurosaki" a man applauded. He dressed in green clothes, haori over his shoulders, a stripped bucket hat and wooden sandals . He had blonde hair, blue eyes and some stubble showing on his chin.

"What do you want?" Rukia asked coldly.

The man gasped in a childlike fashion before pulling a fan out of his pocket and flashing it in front of his face and saying "I do believe you would require a gigai due to the circumstances you now find yourself in".

"And you just happen to have one?" Rukia asked.

"Several actually," the man stated "just to make business where ever a humble shop keeper can, I can have it ready in a couple of hours as well as some forged documents…and some things to help with this" he gestured to Karin lying on the ground.

"_Definitely not a regular shop keeper"_ Rukia thought "Alright fine, just one thing, what's your name?"

"Well my lovely lady, it's Urahara Kisuke at your service" he replied with a somewhat flamboyant tone.

* * *

"This is going to be such a pain" Ichigo groaned.

"Yeah we'll have to make sure she doesn't kill herself hollow hunting assuming that's what she's going to do, with the shinigami out of commission and all" Tatsuki said stating what she thought to be obvious now that the shinigami couldn't do it herself.

"Yeah…look, for now just head home, I'm going to go over there and act oblivious to what just actually happened and pretend a truck smashed into the side of the house before driving off, of course I didn't see It actually happen though, I'll just make an assumption" Ichigo stated before turning around and waving to Tatsuki.

"Yeah all right, see you tomorrow at school then" Tatsuki said before heading off home.


	5. Chapter 5

Hey just to let you know updates will probably only come on weekends from now on unless i have far too much spare time to waste. Some minor changes were made to the previoius chapter, Karin having two zanpakuto instead of one. thats all.

* * *

"Well this is interesting isn't it Kaname" said a man sitting in a chair in front of a large monitor watching Karin being placed back inside her home. This man had brown hair and eyes, he was also wearing rectangular glasses. He was wearing a shinigami shihakusho and a white haori with the number five on its back.

"Indeed captain Aizen, perhaps a change of plan is needed?" Kaname replied calmly. He also had a shinigami shihakusho and white haori on only his haori had the number nine. He had dark skin and hair tied back behind his head, as well as a visor, one would assume he thought it looked cool but in actual fact he was blind.

"No this is perfect, this was the plan" Aizen said.

"What about the boy then?" Kaname said curiously as to why he had changed his mind from the boy he had his sights set on all those years ago to this little girl no more then eleven years old.

"He stopped emitting large quantities of reishi not long after his mothers death, one would think that his soul chain and soul sleep were somehow damaged during the attack from the hollow. I soon found this to be the case as he immediately stopped interacting with plus spirits not long after the incident. He showed confusion at first but then soon grew accustomed to it and ignored the fact he could no longer see them" Aizen replied to Kaname giving him the answer he needed.

"Very well captain Aizen, forgive me for doubting you" Kaname said in his still unmoving tone beside Aizen.

"It's ok, I didn't expect that to happen either, though there is still something I too do not feel is quiet right with the situation," Aizen said "we'll just have to wait to find out," Aizen then got up to leave walking over the dead bodies of the central forty-six. "Keep an eye out for me while I'm gone will you, I have to make sure my lieutenant doesn't worry about not being able to find me". Aizen then left the chambers.

"Keepin' an eye out for tha cap'n are ya" Gin said having not spoken the entire time.

"Do not mock me Gin, I am not up for your games" Kaname replied calmly.

"Oh well see ya then" Gin said cheerfully his grin still plastered to his face twenty-four-seven, certain to creep out all lower ranked shinigami.

"Didn't Aizen ask us to keep an eye out for him" Kaname said not turning around to face him.

"I don't remember him ever talkin' ta me, bye, bye now" Gin said, and with that he left.

* * *

"Hm…ugh" Karin groaned as she rubbed her eyes and got out of bed. "That was some dream".

"Karin-chan come downstairs or you'll be late to school" Yuzu said from in the kitchen.

"Yeah, coming" said Karin.

As Karin came down the stairs she saw Ichigo and Yuzu at the table having breakfast while her father was fussing over a great big hole in the wall.

"_H…hole"_ Karin thought "_in the wall, great so last night mightn't have been a dream_"

"It's amazing isn't it a truck driver drove straight through the wall during the middle of the night and none of us were harmed" Isshin said with a great big smile plastered on his face, hands on hips facing them as though he were some kind of hero.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna stay home to help you clean up" Ichigo said giving Karin a look that she didn't miss confusing her greatly.

"_Unless…_" Karin thought "_no, no way does Ichigo know about last night, he was out with his friends, which is unusual but nevertheless he was out and about, there's no way he could have known or even seen what happened"_.

"Hey Karin you alright there?" Ichigo asked looking at her snapping her out of her thoughts while he rummaged around the house trying to sort out breakfast and the mess, "you seemed a little out of it for a moment".

"No I'm fine, well I'm going to get ready for school then leave" Karin said still amidst her thoughts not entirely sure what to believe, her permanent denial of ghosts or the fact that she just had a full blown conversation with a shinigami and killed a hollow the night before pretty much ruining her ignorant reputation of the spirit world. She decided to go on the former for now; at least until the shinigami Rukia Kuchiki did or didn't show up again proving it to be all one big hallucination.

* * *

(An hour later)

"_There's no doubt that Karin remembers last night"_ Ichigo thought as he spent time removing rubble from the house. "_I wonder if she caught the notion that I sent toward her, it looked like it but it was hard to tell amongst all the confusion showing on her face, for now I'll just keep an eye on her and if she asks a question I'll answer her" _Ichigo continued in his mind.

"Hmm…I think this enough for now Ichigo, you can go to school now"Isshin said looking at the considerably smaller pile of rubble.

"Yeah alright, we'll finish up this afternoon" Ichigo said as he went up to his room to get his school gear to leave.

"Don't be a fool son, daddy will have this cleaned up in no time" Isshin said flexing one of his arms.

"I'm just afraid the mess will be bigger when I get back" Ichigo mumbled.

* * *

(At Karins school)

"Today students we will be having a new student join our class," the teacher said while low murmurs broke out between the students present in the classroom. "Come in now" the teacher continued "This class is miss Rukia Kuchiki" Karin's eyes perceivably widened at that name and looked towards the front of the class turning away from the window she was staring out to the front of the class where one shinigami Rukia Kuchiki stood, smile on facing the class.

"Hello it's nice to meet you all" Rukia said in a fake cheerful manner.

"Well you'll just have to sit next to Karin over there" the teacher pointed out gesturing towards Karin's location.

"Ok," Rukia said while heading over to the seat behind Karin "It's nice to meet you Karin" Rukia said extending her hand out for a greeting when Karin noticed the words "_Say anything, and your dead_" written on the underside of Rukia's hand. Karin just sighed as she sat back down.

The class passed on as usual for the rest of the time until lunch came. That's when Karin found Rukia and dragged her away to an area they couldn't be heard to ask questions "Ok what are you doing here exactly?" Karin demanded.

"Why? Whatever would I know you're talking about" Rukia said innocently.

"You know what I'm talking about, midget" Karin roared.

"Your one to talk, your about as tall as I am" Rukia replied.

"Yeah but you might be centuries old if that's even possible and I'm still growing" Karin said in return earning a growing tick mark on Rukia's forehead.

"Fine I might be at least ten times your age," Rukia said her anger growing "but the true reason I'm here for is so you can go kill hollows in my stead.

"And pray tell why I would do that?" Karin asked but continued before Rukia could reply, "I thought it was your job to kill those things, why can't you do it?"

"My answer would suit both of your questions, and the answer is simple, you took all of my powers, so now its your job to kill them" Rukia said almost painfully slow sounding out each word as to let it sink in.

"What?" Karin yelled making Rukia just roll her eyes "can't you just call your buddies and have them take you back".

"It would be against a shinigami's pride to call for help in such a small matter and besides, I do not want to bring shame to nii-sama" Rukia whispered the last part.

"I'm still not doing it, I have a life to live, not to go gallivanting off to save some spirits" Karin said before turning to walk off, however before she could do this Rukia pulled a glove out of her pocket that was red and had a skull with flame like markings on it, putting it on she slammed it into Karin's head before dragging her off to someplace.

* * *

(At Karakura park)

"Hey why are we here?" Karin asked grumpily "and we can't just leave my body in the open like that".

"If you were still paying attention after I knocked you out of your body you would know that I hid it, now we just have to wait here for a few minutes" Rukia said as if the most obvious thing in the world.

"What for? Oh you want me to send that kid who comes through here everyday to that soul society place don't you?" Karin accursedly pointed her finger at Rukia.

"Yes, and here he comes now" Rukia replied watching as a hollow came out of the trees chasing the running boy "well are you going to save him from the hollow?" Rukia waited for an answer.

"Dammit" Karin said before running over and grabbing one of the two zanpakuto strapped to her waist and slashing at one of the hollows legs, before it fell to the ground Karin cut through it's mask killing it. Walking over to the kid sitting down Karin almost felt an instinctual feeling to jam the but of her sword on the stupid kids head for almost getting eaten by the hollow. "Pass on will ya, before you get eaten" Karin said before tapping her sword on the kid's head leaving a konso mark in his head. She watched as the kid disappeared into blue spirit particles before turning to a slightly surprised Rukia, she was also smiling somewhat.

"I do not believe I have shown you how to do that," Rukia said "nevertheless you will now be saving all the souls I presume as you did that one".

"He was right in front of me, I can't see a person get killed or hurt when its right in front of me and I can sop it, so get over this silly charade of yours about me being your substitute" Karin argued.

"But by saving that spirit or person as you called it, you just signed an invisible contract saying that you would help all the souls and kill all the hollows within Karakura" Rukia rebutted. "You can't get out of it now, even if you wanted to, technically you signed it the moment you took my powers".

"Fine but I'm doing this because I want to help people not because it's my duty" Karin said, looking at the surprise on Rukia's face "what? Wasn't it against a shinigami's pride to go back because they lost against a simple hollow, I'm assuming the same thing applies to when you get injured and give your powers to another to have them kill the hollow for you" Karin continued.

"Very well" Rukia said mildly stunned at the girls answer, and with that they left the park not noticing the orange haired teen watching with a small smile on his face.

"Good answer Karin, good answer" Ichigo said to himself as he left in a flash of green to go back to school.

* * *

(Earlier at Ichigo's school)

"Hey guys, just so you were wondering I'm not dead yet" Ichigo said as he went to join his group of friends.

"IIIIIIICCCCCHHHHIIIIGOOOOOO" Keigo screamed as he ran at Ichigo only to get coat-hangered and put into a headlock by Ichigo.

"You never learn do you" Ichigo said as he dropped Keigo on the floor.

"So it wasn't as bad as it looks?" someone said.

"Nah, it only took about an hour, then my old man said he'd take care of the rest" Ichigo replied.

"Are you sure that was a wise decision?" Tatsuki asked, "he might pull the whole house down and rebuild it".

"It'll be okay he wouldn't do anything drastic" '_I hope_' Ichigo mentally added.

* * *

(Some time later)

Ichigo was now secretly out of school and watching Karin talk it down with the shinigami Rukia. "_Man this is so boring, I hope that fake clone I set up is doing its work and writing notes cause the memories don't pass back to me when it disappears_" Ichigo thought as he observed the two.

A couple of years ago when Ichigo discovered the true power of the green flash that emanated from his feet was interacting with the soul of an object or soul essence he immediately began trying to apply it to other uses. He was successful in the more basic uses such as charging it to a point on his finger and unleashing it like a cero. Unfortunately this incident caused him to have to find another place to practice as it attracted unwanted attention from the police authorities of Karakura. However later he tried creating a temporary copy of himself, this technique he invented required massive amounts of concentration to form and then large quantities of energy to retain, so it is no more useful than a mere distraction and can only last up to thirty minutes if he stretches the time limit. Its capabilities include copying his own actions and behaving like himself to an extent, as well as performing some minor tasks like taking notes in class. There is no memory transfer when the clone is terminated.

"_Somethings happening now"_ Ichigo thought as he saw Karin get tied up and decide to save the little boy. Karin then went over to Rukia after giving a konso to the boy and told her why she was going to do it, making Ichigo slightly proud of his sister's actions and words. "Good answer Karin, good answer" and with that Ichigo disappeared in a flash of green and headed back to school.


	6. Chapter 6

I don't know about you but I find the shrieker and all the other hollows really boring. So the cannon in these sections are all exactly the same with the exceptance of Tatsuki not being critically injured by Sora and Karin saving Tatsuki and Orihime from the hollow Sora.

Talking bird story is pretty much same as well except that Yuzu is the one that has a slight reaction to the bird; in this story she can partially see spirits. Later on though she can see them fully and only gets a little more involved. Other than that she's completely useless.

In the way of mod-souls Karin still gets one although it's female instead and doesn't act extremely perverted like Kon does. Name will be introduced in the chapter. Style of plushie I don't care, for now it will just be a stuffed animal of sorts. Kon may or may not come into play later.

* * *

"Normal speaking"

_"Thoughts"_

* * *

(Time skip to grand fisher)

It was June 17, the day Masaki Kurosaki died and today, the family of Kurosaki's were going to visit her grave.

"Jeez it's so hot out here" Ichigo said "way too hot for today".

"Yeah you got that right" Karin said.

"The hill is so steep" Yuzu whined.

"Is that all your complaining about, not the weather" Ichigo said in slight disbelief.

"Yeah cause I'm having no problems getting up this, you really should get your fitness checked" Karin said.

"Don't worry my little girls" Isshin said as he jumped onto his hands and began walking up the hill on them, "daddy's coming!"

"Stop acting like a four year old!" Karin yelled before kicking him down the hill, and tumbling out of sight.

"Hey, do one of you know who that is at the top of the hill waving to us" Yuzu said causing both of the other Kurosaki's to turn from facing the direction their father went and look up the hill to see a waving Rukia.

"Uh…no I don't know her at all" Karin said hoping that one of the others wouldn't recognize her.

"Oh isn't she that…" Yuzu never got to finish as Karin blurted out something incomprehensible before running to the top of the hill and dragging away Rukia by the arm.

"Well there they go" Ichigo said casually turning toward some nearby stairs to go up them.

"But what about Karin-chan" Yuzu said.

"I'm sure she'll just have a quick talk to her about something then come and join us, besides it's not like Karin can't take care of herself for a little bit" Ichigo replied. Yuzu then followed Ichigo up the stairs into the cemetery.

* * *

(With Karin on a track near the cemetery)

"What are you doing here?" Karin half yelled.

"I have to be nearby if there's a hollow" Rukia replied bluntly as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well if you are do it more discretely, don't go waving to people with a creepy smile on your face" Karin said.

"You think I'm creepy" Rukia said eye twitching.

"No not at all" Karin said waving her hands in front of her sweating a little.

"Well I just thought I should come just in case a hollow attacks and it's near your family because they do seem to be quite the attention trackers" Rukia said forgetting about the earlier comment.

"I wouldn't worry to much about hollows if my brothers nearby" Karin said.

"Come to think of it I haven't seen much of your brother" Rukia said.

"Yeah that's cause he's out all the time or in his room, he doesn't tell us where he goes or what he does, but he'll live he always does" Karin said remembering something.

"What do you mean he always does?" Rukia asked curiously. Karin sighed. "It's alright you don't have to tell me".

"No its fine it's just around three years ago Ichigo went missing, he turned up roughly a year and a half later covered in scars, he constantly muttered things about an endless night in a moonlit desert and an underground forest, more in awe than fear" Karin said with a dark look. "We still have no idea what he was talking about".

Rukia stared at the back of Karin as she walked away unsure of what to say. It was rumored that Heuco Mundo was an eternal desert and night. She wondered if this was the place that Ichigo was talking about. "_No it can't be, it's not possible" _Rukia thought_._

* * *

(At Masaki's grave)

Isshin had finally caught up with Ichigo and Yuzu and was currently annoying the shit out of Ichigo.

"Get the hell out of my face" Ichigo roared pushing Isshin down the steps, all while Yuzu was silently praying at Masaki's grave.

"You hurt daddy's feelings my son" Isshin said with a hurt look "I'm gonna go look around for Karin you stay here"

"I'm sure Karin's fine, just leave her be" Ichigo said turning away heading back to Yuzu.

"What kind of father would I be if I did that?" Isshin questioned "Oh Kariiiiiin where are you" Isshin yelled as he began to walk away.

* * *

(With Rukia)

As Rukia stood in a clearing near the edge of a small drop when she felt some rustling in her backpack and a small stuffed toy poked it's head out.

"Hey Rukia its really hot in there do I have to stay" It said

"Yes you do Yukasa" Rukia said looking in front of her.

"Oh come on, can I walk around a little, please" Yukasa pleaded.

"You c…" Rukia said before silencing herself hearing something nearby.

"Yesss I can get out of the bag" Yukasa yelled not realizing the reason Rukia had turned silent.

"Sssshhhhhhhhh" Rukia said holding a finger in front of her lips silencing Yukasa's victory dance. Rukia then ran through some bushes to find a man lying against a tree on the path. He was dressed in a black shihakusho, a katana at his waist and a straw hat on his head. "_A shinigami, but what's he doing here?" _Yukasa immediately ran searching for Karin upon seeing the shinigami.

The man turned his head a little and then let it turn back before letting out a yawn and stretched out his arms. He then got to his feet and looked straight at Rukia who appeared to be in a ready stance as though something were about to happen.

"Settle down I'm not going to hurt you…yet" the shinigami said " I've just gotta ask a couple of questions before I let you be on your merry way" the shinigami continued. "People are starting to get a bit antsy up there especially because you're his sister, they're all asking, "why doesn't she come back?" Well what is it, have you got the hots for that little girls brother?" the shinigami asked causing Rukia to turn a light shade of pink at the question, however it went unnoticed by the shinigami who had turned away finger tapping on his chin trying to come up with an answer. "Or are you stuck and you gave our powers to that little girl? You were talking about hollows as though you needed her to slay them for you" the shinigami pondered.

"Orders come through and I deliver that's all there is to it" Rukia said crossing her arms in front of her chest trying to feel confident. "Your from the stealth division aren't you?"

"Ding, ding. You guessed correctly" the shinigami said smiling.

"You aren't exactly stealthy" Rukia said.

"Yeah well this was more of a questioning session and not a stealth mission" the shinigami stopped when he heard some rustling in the bushes.

Out burst Karin with Yukasa on her shoulder immediately seeing Rukia in front of her and the shinigami to the right. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" Karin demanded.

"Oh so you can see me hmm. Well I'm afraid I can't answer your first question because of status reasons however I can answer your second, I'm simply here to ask miss Kuchiki-san a few questions" the shinigami said. "And who might you be little girl"

"I'm Karin and I'm not a little girl, I'm also…" Karin said pointing towards herself.

"Karin don't say it" Rukia said however a little late or Karin didn't hear her.

"The substitute shinigami here currently protecting Karakura from those nasties you fail to clean up" Karin finished pointing at the shinigami in front of her.

"…Substitute…shinigami…" the shinigami said now looking at Rukia and said "that's a serious crime you've committed there Kuchiki" the shinigami told her now looking a little dangerous, only to lighten up a little into a small smile stating that he couldn't care less. "Well then kid lets see what you've got" he said before jumping at Karin sword ready.

Karin jumped out of the way, just barely. "Hey aren't you gonna wait for me to be ready?" Karin yelled.

"Nope" the shinigami said before lunging again.

Karin sighed grabbing Yukasa from her unmoving position on Karin's shoulder slightly startling the mod-soul, before reaching into it's mouth reaching for the pill. Desperately fiddling to find the pill the shinigami was nearing her. Finally grasping the pill Karin pulled her hand out of the stuffed toy's mouth and swallowed the pill ejecting her soul from her body. Karin immediately drew one of her swords lifting it just in time to block with both hands on the hilt struggling to keep the shinigami off her. Finally slipping out from underneath the shinigami Karin stood before charging at him.

"So you really can turn into one" the shinigami said in slight awe.

"Yeah, so" Karin replied not happy with the situation she was currently in.

As the battle ensued Karin was pushed back little by little even with both swords now drawn. It was mainly the strength and skill that she was missing to be capable of beating the shinigami.

"Hey stop" Rukia said immediately causing both to freeze mid strikes. "There's a hollow nearby, and it looks big" Rukia continued with slight worry in her voice.

"Where is it?" Karin said running over forgetting entirely about the fight that was happening just moments before.

"Near the cemetery, we've got to move, it might be heading for your family" Rukia said "Come on this way"

"Hey what about me" the shinigami whined before tailing them.

* * *

(A few minutes later)

Ichigo stood facing his mother's grave when he felt the hollows presence. Unfortunately for him though Karin, Rukia and another shinigami were headed for its location. It was heading towards him and Yuzu. Ichigo turned to face the hollow as it neared him. "Hello" Ichigo said, "What can I do…" Ichigo stopped and remembered the day that his mother died. This was the hollow, the hollow that killed his mother. "_Lure on it's head, check, green fur, check, bird feet, check, this was it._"

"Ichigo" Karin called out trying to get Ichigo to face her forgetting she was in shinigami form at the moment "run" she continued to yell". She didn't expect to see absolute fury on his face when he turned around.

Ichigo simply held his hand out and said "sword, now"

Finally realising what Ichigo said she replied "no it's not safe you have to run while I deal with the hollow". What she didn't expect to happen next was for Ichigo to disappear and reappear next to her in a flash of green. He grabbed Karin's zanpakuto from her hands and turned to face the hollow. Finally finding herself again she looked at Ichigo expecting an answer.

"Later" Ichigo said getting a dumb nod from Karin.

At that moment Rukia and the other shinigami rounded the corner to the sight before them.

"Damn that girls a fast runner" the shinigami said getting his breath back.

"Yeah" Rukia said.

Both then looked up to see Karin standing next to Ichigo who held one of Karin's zanpakuto. Eyes widening they ran forward as they realized what was going to happen. Ichigo was going to fight the hollow.

"Stop" Rukia yelled "you'll only get yourself killed" causing Ichigo to turn his head slightly.

"I could say the same to you Rukia," Ichigo replied in a cold tone "your almost powerless at the moment and if you think you could do a better job with those weak kido spells than I could with my sisters zanpakuto, be my guest? Besides this one was always going to be mine whether I die or not, it killed my mother" Ichigo said getting a shocked look from Karin and a bowed head from Rukia who was realizing that Ichigo was right, without her zanpakuto she was powerless.

"That killed mum" Karin asked her voice shaking a little.

Ichigo nodded his head turning back to the hollow, which seemed to have been listening to their conversation as though trying to figure out a weakness to make an easy meal, however none was, and an attacking opportunity was wasted. "The reason I'm using your sword Karin is because it will purify the hollow and send mum and all the other souls its consumed to soul society, do you understand" Ichigo said not turning back to make sure Karin had.

Ichigo ran towards the hollow at inhuman speeds before vanishing confusing everyone. A moment later a split appeared down the middle of the hollow and it managed to whisper out something along the lines of 'damn you' before disintegrating.

"Come Karin lets go home now, I'll carry Yuzu" Ichigo said handing back Karin her zanpakuto, going over to Yuzu in her unconscious form because of the spiritual release, picking her up, prompting Karin to get back in her body and placing the pill back into the stuffed animal and walking away with Ichigo.

* * *

(A few minutes later Rukia+shinigami)

Rukia and the shinigami stayed behind confused at the events that just happened before them. Obviously Ichigo had just avenged his mother but how? They could leave that for later, there was always the possibility of a few rare humans possessing power like he displayed.

"So miss Kuchiki-san" the shinigami said tipping his hat forwards a little. "I will return to soul society for now and will say nothing however they will send another search party soon, I hope you realize that, I just hope that little girl, Karin and her brother don't get caught up in it" he then turned around and left, leaving Rukia all to herself in the cemetery.


	7. Chapter 7

"Normal talking"

"_Thoughts"_

* * *

(At Kurosaki house next day Ichigo's room)

"Uh…so Ichi-nii…"Karin was about to continue when Ichigo held his hand up silencing her.

Sitting down Ichigo began to speak "Alright what do you want to know?"

"How long?" Karin blurted out.

"Since mum died" Ichigo replied.

"Why haven't you told us" Karin said.

"To keep you safe" Ichigo said "you were only little and now your still only eleven"

"But I'm still involved now" Karin said.

"Yes you are, and I could have prevented that had I gotten here sooner when the hollow attacked the house, I tried to make sure that the Rukia wouldn't be conscious when I used my power but you went over to her and took her powers, and now you're a shinigami" Ichigo said head in hand.

"Your making it sound like a bad thing" Karin said a little confused.

"Thats because it is a bad thing, shinigami aren't supposed to give their powers to humans, I think it's supposed to be illegal, and the bearer of the shinigami's powers are dealt with" Ichigo said implying what might happen.

"I can't die yet" Karin said holding her head in her hands starting to freak out a little.

Ichigo just put his hand on Karin's shoulder and said "don't worry I won't let anything happen to you" he said trying to comfort Karin a little "besides you'll have to let them at least stab your soul chain and soul sleep if you want them to leave you alone, it will also allow Rukia's zanpakuto spirit to return to her, at the moment she doesn't like being in two pieces" Ichigo continued "after that they'll expect you to die, but I'll be there to make sure that that doesn't happen"

"Who doesn't like being in two pieces?" Karin said slightly surprising Ichigo that she wasn't going to go over about being stabbed, she obviously trusted Ichigo too much to worry about that.

"The sword spirit," Ichigo said raising an eyebrow "didn't Rukia say that they're alive…the swords you use"

"Ehhhh it's alive" Karin said in wonderment "does it have a name?"

"I'm sure she does but her name isn't for your ears, only Rukia's, she seemed quiet comfortable with you though which is a little strange…" Ichigo said trailing off "but all in all she has to go back to Rukia when it's Rukia's time to leave"

"Ok Ichi-nii" Karin said still thinking about what Ichigo said to her about the sword or zanpakuto with her was alive. Suddenly Karin remembered something she was dying to ask him "Where did you go three years ago?"

Ichigo sighed he thought she might ask "well I got stuck in a place called Heuco Mundo"

"Is that that place you were talking about, endless night, moonlit desert, underground forest" Karin said motioning for Ichigo to give her the right or wrong.

"Yes it is" Ichigo said answering Karin's question.

"Could you tell me what happened there?" Karin asked wanting to know more.

"I guess I could, but it'll take a while" Ichigo said

"That's ok, you've got the whole weekend" Karin said trying to get Ichigo to hurry up, not caring how long it took her brother to explain it all.

"Fine" Ichigo said shaking his head "may as well get comfortable"

* * *

(Three years ago)

Ichigo was watching as the Karakura assigned shinigami from the roof of a nearby building, and the shinigami was failing miserably at trying to kill the hollow he was attacking. Ichigo had come to name him as Afro-san simply because of the large Afro on his head. Finally the hollow had made a swipe at the shinigami that the shinigami was unable to keep up with and was knocked unconscious and Ichigo came in to play.

Being a bit stupid and cocky at how strong he was compared to the normal human Ichigo decided to play around for a bit with the hollow before he killed it.

Dodging and weaving out of the hollows constant attacks Ichigo began taunting the hollow. Finally deciding to end the fight Ichigo did a partial release on his fullbring, conjuring a mass of black reishi that swirled around him for a moment before forming a black shihakusho and yellow obi in place of the usual white a shinigami would have. He also had a large sword like mass of reishi on the end of his right arm as though there was a hilt he was grasping the end of.

Ichigo then leapt at the hollow from behind and planted the sword in the hollows back thinking he would be able to pull it all the way through the hollow when he met surprising resistance and got his sword stuck in the hollows back.

Being what a hollow is, a creature of instinct, it decided that a retreat was the best course of action and so the hollow tried to flee to Heuco Mundo with Ichigo still on it's back. The hollow began to pass through the garganta and Ichigo started to worry. Deciding the time was best for a power up Ichigo went for a full release. However the hollow was to fast and by the time Ichigo had made a full release and cut the hollow in two they had already made it to Heuco Mundo. A place where the night never ends and creatures of instinct roam the lands hunting for prey on an eternal desert. Ichigo would remain here for the time being.

"Ahhhh Fuck!" Ichigo yelled, "oh shit, gotta keep quiet" Ichigo instantly went to put his hands in front of his mouth to help him stay quiet while he tried to yell and curse about being stuck in Heuco Mundo.

He was too late as he heard a roar in the distance, a challenger. Soon the place would be swarming with hollows, and he'd be in the middle of it. Life was just wonderful at times, wasn't it? Though thinking about things like that for now would have to wait.

Sure enough some time later hollows from within a rather large vicinity had gathered to where Ichigo was. On the sands of the desert the hollows all stared at the newcomer.

"What is it?" one asked to Ichigo's surprise.

"_Some have intelligence?_" Now that was confusing. All the hollows Ichigo had encountered so far were all hungry beasts that tore at their prey without mercy and fled when endangered. Was there a level beyond the regular ones? There had to be these reishi reserves the hollows were displaying were worlds above the ones he had been facing.

"Who cares lets kill it," another hollow said "I wonder what it tastes like"

"He's mine" another said.

"No he's mine" the second hollow said.

Soon nearly all the hollows were in an uproar about who got to eat the new guy. Not long after that they were all tearing at each other's hides consuming each other to decide on who got the prey.

"_No they're still all pretty stupid"_ Ichigo thought as he began to sneak away from the hollows dodging stray ceros when needed.

"Where do you think you're going?" a hollow behind Ichigo said.

"Uh…leaving" Ichigo said smiling nervously, now looking at the massive saber tooth tiger behind him. "_Holy shit…those are big teeth"_ Ichigo thought. "Now if you don't mind I'd rather not get eaten…alive"

"You're a long way from home human, are you sure you know how to leave? Or even stay alive out here" the hollow said walking over to him getting ready to strike.

Ichigo began to release his reishi and release his fullbring to its peak, he didn't know just how powerful this hollow was and he didn't want to take his chances. The hollow then began to laugh.

"Hehehe, how interesting, you seem rather powerful for a human" the hollow said now within striking range. "It would be a pity if all those other hollows wasted your power on themselves when it could be mine"

The hollow then struck, Ichigo barely made it out of the way in time. Watching the hollow follow up for another attack Ichigo readied his own and struck with an attack similar to that of a crescent moon that shot off his blade. The hollow wasn't hurt in the slightest and continued to charge.

"You should have gone below the sands and into the forest if you wanted to live, that attack would have killed some low-level hollows and injured the menos a little" the hollow said as it continued to hack and slash at Ichigo. "You might've lived longer"

"_There is a place beneath the desert? If so I need to get there to even stand a chance in this place"_ Ichigo thought. Ichigo then started to use light bringer to escape the barrage of attacks that came from the hollow, missing him barely.

"Hm" the hollow snorted as it finally struck Ichigo knocking him a good distance away "too slow, if you really wanted to live you would try and defeat me, you'd never escape"

Ichigo painfully pulled himself off the ground and groaned in pain, a good deal of bones were broken from that hit alone, he couldn't take another like that or god forbid something more powerful. "_I need to find a way under the sand quickly, hopefully this hollows a shitty tracker"_. Ichigo frantically looked around trying to find a way under as the hollow began walking up to him. "_There, just a little in the distance, I hope it's what I think it is cause I'm gonna die if it's not"_. Ichigo began moving as fast as he could across the sands to the sinkhole he'd found, the weak spot, where sand fell through at times when the weight became too much or something dragged it under. Ichigo dove into the sand and began digging as quickly as he could, using bringer light to speed up the process. Soon the sand began to give way and Ichigo began to fall through. The last thing he saw before he completely fell through was the hollows claw swiping at where he once stood.

"He managed to get away after all. A good meal wasted," the hollow complained not bothering to run after the human, it then turned to the blood bath that was finishing up in the distance and began to move over to it completely confident in it's capability to defeat them all "besides there sure is a lot of food over there, sure enough to keep the voices away for a while."

* * *

(Menos forest)

Ichigo was sifting through the sand and slowly falling through, but he was also getting faster. All of a sudden the sand was gone and Ichigo was falling through the air. He was in complete darkness. Everywhere he looked there were only tiny slivers of light from tiny crystals that decorated the treetops.

Crash.

"Ooomph" Ichigo let out a gasp of air as he landed on the hard floor of the menos forest. Slowly picking himself up, Ichigo began to crawl grasping at the painful areas on his body to try and prevent their soreness. Every now and then it felt like the ground was tipping away and so Ichigo would rreadjust his course. Finally he found something that felt like a tree and sat himself against it. Ichigo knew he probably shouldn't but he fell asleep within the forest unprotected. His wounds would soon be healed because of his hollow reishi and sleep helped the best, well if you weren't prey anyway.

* * *

(Some hours later)

When Ichigo woke he could see the forest clearly. "_My eyes must have adjusted to the darkness"_ Ichigo thought. Slowly moving out of his sitting position Ichigo noticed that some reishi signatures that were far way before he fell asleep were close, dangerously close. Looking around the only things Ichigo could see were the stone like trees that seemed to hold up the forest, each one being taller than multiple skyscrapers on top of each other. Ichigo then finally took notice of where he was. He was on a massive tree branch that was only about a quarter of the way down. Looking over the edge Ichigo could see the stone floor of the forest, his eyes widened at what he also saw down below. Massive hollows that were at least a third of the trees height, they had identical masks and were dressed in what looked like black billowing cloaks that spread over their whole body, spikes jumping out at their midsection and stopped at the monsters ankles. They were just wandering around; no apparent sense of direction was given by their lumbering. If they weren't the enemy that was approaching so fast then what was.

"Excuse me mister, who are you?"

Ichigo jumped at that and turned around to find someone that looked like a girl to be almost his age, with blue hair, grey eyes, slightly tanned skin, and a mask fragment covering the left half of her neck extending up to the back of her jaw showing just a few teeth on it. She was dressed in something that looked like rags and had something that looked to be the hilt of a sword with dark blue wrappings poking out from behind the left side of her back at her waist. She was currently sitting on a branch near hi swinging her legs back and forth.

"Your jumpy" she giggled.

"Who are you?" Ichigo asked ready to go at a moments notice.

"Uh uhh, I asked you first" she said.

"If I tell you mine will you tell me yours?" Ichigo said warily.

"I guess so, equal trade" she replied.

"I'm Ichigo, Ichigo Kurosaki" Ichigo said "now tell me yours"

"Doesn't that mean strawberry?" she said and laughed at the look she got from Ichigo "you're not a very happy person are you?" she questioned "it's alright I know what it really means, one who protects right?"

Ichigo's face showed a little less anger at that. "I still want to know what your name is" Ichigo said

"Fine its Shingetsu wa jōshō, but you can just call me shin" she said having a big grin on her face.

"Well alright shin can you tell me what you are?" Ichigo asked.

Shin just looked at him curiously before answering "I'm a hollow, wait no I'm a little different to other hollows, I'm what's called an arrancar" shin said before stating her own question "What are you?"

"I'm a human" Ichigo said.

Shin looked at Ichigo for a moment before looking at the ceiling and turning back to face him. "Then why're you in Heuco Mundo? And why does your reishi feel like a hollows? And shouldn't you be trying to kill me or at least run away if you're a human?"

Ichigo just decided to sit down like she was before answering. "For you first question, I'm in Heuco Mundo because I did something stupid and decided to attack a hollow saving a stupid shinigami's life, I got dragged here to Heuco Mundo before killing it and I have no way back. The reason my reishi feels like a hollows is because I have special abilities other normal humans don't posses and I probably gained them when my mother was pregnant she came into contact with another hollow and I absorbed some of it weakening the lock on my own hollow reishi, I discovered my powers through a very emotional event and I unlocked my powers. The reason I'm not trying to kill you or haven't run away is because you seem friendly enough and you haven't attacked me yet. Satisfied."

"Yep," Shin nodded smiling "hey, can we be friends?"

"Why?" Ichigo asked feeling slightly strange at the prospect of possibly being friends with a hollow.

"Because I have none and you seem to be a nice person…plus I'm not exactly that strong either, when I became an arrancar I lost a great deal of my power" Shin said sadly.

Not wanting to see a girl crying in front of him hollow or not Ichigo gave in "Fine…perhaps we can both get strong enough to go up to the sands if we work together"

"Yay" Shin screamed jumping into Ichigo's arms giving him a hug "I have a friend"


	8. Chapter 8

Ichigo was currently slicing up stronger low-level hollows in attempts to get stronger. Shin was doing the same along side Ichigo. Both were in near perfect sync, and both were giving it their all. Ichigo and Shin had been at this for a couple of days now and were beginning to feel the full force of the effects from fighting for so long and hard. The only way Ichigo had been able to fuel his body the entire time so far in Heuco Mundo had been extremely stressing on his body, he had had to absorb so much reishi using his hollow abilities that it turned into actual sustenance for his body to consume, about as much as your average mid-level low-level hollow contains. Effectively he had been consuming quantities of reishi that were worth many souls, he was beginning to become more like a hollow. The process was slower when not using his fullbring never the less it was speeding up to the rate at which he would never have to sleep again, he would still have to rest from physical exhaustion like everyone else but never sleep, just like a hollow.

As Ichigo cut down the last hollow in the clearing he stumbled over to a tree stump and collapsed against it undoing his fullbring not able to maintain nor stand. Shin did likewise and collapsed next to him breathing heavily although she had not released her sword making Ichigo wonder just how powerful she truly was, but then again Ichigo hadn't been releasing completely either, he had only been using his partial release to push himself to his limits.

"So…now we're sitting down…could you tell me what the human world is like?" Shin asked while gulping for air.

"Sure, got nothing else to do" Ichigo said and he started talking about the human world to Shin, she had wanted to know heaps about the human world ever since they became friends but Ichigo managed to convince her that training was more important, because he said 'how am I going to tell you about it if we're both food'. Making his point Shin reluctantly agreed only if Ichigo promised to tell her about it. Now that they knew each other a little better Shin was acting less childish around Ichigo although she did still have her moments every now and then where she lost it. Problem of being alone for to long was Ichigo's guess.

Finally rested up a few hours later and having told Shin a whole tonne of stuff about the human world, they headed out. Surprisingly enough she stayed silent the entire time listening as though trying to remember something lost, only asking a question once in a while. Time to take the next step in crushing hollows, the Adjuchas. Menos were slightly harder to find then regular hollows but when they were found they were usually in large clusters as Ichigo had found out so far. Shin had also told Ichigo about hollows evolution process as she remembered. Hollows ate hollows and they evolved, that was about it, although it could take years for the evolution to Adjuchas, and then even longer to Vasto Lorde.

"So Ichi, do you think it would be possible for me to visit the human world myself one day" Shin asked causing Ichigo to stop walking for a moment before starting up again catching up to Shin.

"Ahhh…I don't know, um I mean some day maybe yeah, you just got to get a grip on your Reishi" Ichigo said trying to keep Shin happy.

"Yeah I do don't I, and then I could go" Shin said before giggling a bit "whoo I'm gonna go to the human world someday" Shin continued starting to jump up and down.

"Yep," Ichigo grinned widely before lowering it a little before saying "hey shin you never did tell me your name"

Shin chuckled nervously a bit as she answered, "hehe…I didn't think you'd pick up so soon"

"Well your name doesn't sound like one a person would normally give themselves, it sounded more like a zanpakuto name than a person or hollows name," Ichigo said both of them stopping to face each other "so what is your real name?"

"I don't have one" Shin said.

"Fine, for now then I'll just keep calling you shin until we can come up with something better, but please a little more trust" Ichigo said "and for that you owe me a spar, and you have to release your zanpakuto" Ichigo said crossing his arms.

"Ehhh, since when do I have to fight against you" Shin said apparently more worried about the fight than telling the truth to people.

"Since you lied to me its only fair, besides you've seen my abilities" Ichigo said.

"I didn't lie…I merely misled you" Shin said grinning thinking she'd won.

Ichigo just sighed dragging his hand over his face. "That's the same as lying" he deadpanned.

"No it's not" Shin insisted.

"Fine whatever, you still owe me a spar, and I could use won about now, I've built up a bit of stress from being stuck in Heuco Mundo and I just might…" Ichigo paused before grinning wickedly "lash out, accidentally" Ichigo finished lunging at shin fullbring already in motion.

"Waaaiiit!" Shin screamed running away "I'm not ready yet"

"Oh come on Shin you know its just a spar, until the other gives up or KO…right" Ichigo said his hollow reishi affecting his behavior.

"Fine you brought this upon yourself Ichigo, _Rule the night Shingetsu wa jōshō"_ Shin whispered silkily holding her zanpakuto in front of her lips at an angle before reishi erupted from her obscuring her from view.

When her release completed she was dressed in a blue and black robe, armor plates now covering her forearms, hands now clawed with bone, her mask had grown to cover her entire head except her face, the top half of which was shielded by the shadow of an overhanging piece of her mask the lower part expressing her emotions through the twists and turns of her mouth contorting into a grin, behind the shadow was the eerie glow of red eyes. In her right hand was a scythe about one and a half times as tall as her, it had a bone white appearance for the main part, red tribal markings where the blade started, the markings traveled up the blade to the tip where they curved downward where they traveled along the blade edge and down the midsection of the staff, at the bottom it split up into an intricate display of blues and blacks. "Scared?" Shin asked in an unnaturally soft and seductive voice letting her grin fade away.

Ichigo felt himself falling into a trance at just hearing her voice, it felt so welcoming he just wanted to embrace it and let it all be over and done with. "_No don't fall for it Ichigo don't fall for it"_ Ichigo said to himself while shaking his head too try and clear it of the voice that had worked it's way into his mind. This girl was very scary. "Once you talked yeah," Ichigo said replying "but I haven't shown my full power either yet" as Ichigo said this he released all his reishi and activated his full release in hopes that the higher reishi level would help keep her voice from overpowering him. It worked if only a little.

"See I'm just a little girl with a very scary monster hidden within" Shin said and smiled at this. "Your going to have to be careful focusing your mind in two places at once" Shin said "one place, avoiding my voice and what it commands of you, and my attacks" at this Shin threw her scythe at Ichigo at incredible speeds.

"_Oh shit"_ Ichigo thought as the scythe hurled at him. Ichigo just barely dodged in time and attempted to come with a counter attack only to see Shin in front of him humming a soft melody. Ichigo immediately froze when she began to caress his cheek and failed to notice the scythe complete a loop and starting to come back. He was stuck and he didn't know what to do until instincts took over and left Ichigo in the dark.

Shin became confused when Ichigo's head dropped and his fullbring didn't let go. All of a sudden Ichigo gripped the arm that Shin was using to caress his face with. His grip was tightening and She was beginning to feel a little pain. "Ichigo…Ichigo stop…wake up" Shin pleaded as Ichigo began bending her arm backwards at an awkward angle threatening to break it.

Unknown to the shell once known as Ichigo though the scythe was hurtling towards him.

Splash.

Shins eyes were wide. Ichigo had managed to avoid getting himself killed, but he was critically injured, by maneuvering Shin into intercept the scythe for him.

Shin gurgled a little and so did Ichigo before they both collapsed from wounds that would prevent them moving for some time. Ichigo was hit on his left arm, the scythe had left a coil like wound trailing up his arm somehow starting at the back of his hand turning around to the left so it trailed over the back of where his palm met his wrist around his arm twice and finished at his shoulder blade digging into his back.

Shin's hollow reishi was already working at healing her once she pulled the scythe out of herself, and she let go of her release fading back into her regular arrancar form. "_What was that, one moment Ichigo was in my trance and the next he wasn't even conscious, it was like he was moving out of pure instinct, scary"_ Shin thought. Shin then shifted over a little to see a white substance jumping in and out of Ichigo's wound then solidifying into a layer that looked liked silver-grey markings of some kind, having rough edges all around the sides where it met his skin and a smooth surface. "_Strange…its probably only for decorative purposes"._

Shin then fell asleep before looking over Ichigo one last time to make sure he wouldn't attack her in her sleep. When Ichigo only showed signs of sleeping peacefully Shin gave in to her need and fell under.

* * *

(Some time later)

"Ugh…I feel like shit" Ichigo said as he awoke to see Shin on the ground next to him asleep. Crawling over to her Ichigo shook Shin a little trying to wake her up. "Come on Shin wake…up" While Ichigo said this he noticed the new tattoo like marking that trailed up his left arm, he could feel power emanating from it in waves. It was very powerful and he had to find out what it was so he could use it to empower himself further to protect his friends and family. Ichigo would just focus on waking up Shin for now and checking if she was ok.

"Hey Shin wake up" Ichigo said shaking her a bit harder now.

"Nooo, I don't waannna" Shin whined in her sleep and then giggled perversely changing thoughts obviously thinking about something that Ichigo didn't want to hear.

"Come on" Ichigo yelled starting to get frustrated and a bit embarrassed to hear Shin laugh like that, just what was she thinking.

"I'm up, I'm up" Shin yelled jumping up slamming her head into Ichigo's face "Sorry".

Ichigo fell backwards grasping his nose crying in pain. "It's ok, besides what I'm worried about is what happened during the fight, I swear I lost consciousness" Ichigo said.

"Oh…that…well you did lose consciousness but you also kept fighting somehow and you almost broke my arm before throwing me into the path of my scythe before getting your left arm injured and impaling me through my gut on it" Shin explained.

Ichigo's eyes just widened upon that and started apoligising immediately. "I'm really sorry" Ichigo said.

"Nah it's ok I heal up pretty fast thanks to my regeneration capabilities, while it's not the fastest out there it does its job" Shin said all while smiling and trying to tell Ichigo that it wasn't his fault. "Come on Ichigo, I'm alright, it's time to take on some low level Adjuchas that are still wandering around here".

Ichigo sighed before agreeing. And so Ichigo began to follow Shin to where she would think the Adjuchas hang around. "Hey so where should they be?" Ichigo asked starting to get impatient with all the walking they've been doing.

"They should mainly hang around the exit to the desert above the forest, mainly because that's where all powerful hollows go for more powerful prey to get them further along in the evolution process faster" Shin answered.

"Well lets hurry it up then" Ichigo said.

"Yeah that's the problem," Shin said "I've forgotten where it is" Shin said sheepishly only to receive a light bonk on her head courtesy of Ichigo. "Ow" Shin whined, "What was that for?"

"It's because you have a terrible memory and you've been leading us in a direction that could may as well be the opposite direction" Ichigo roared "we may as well ask the next hollow that passes by"

"Hey that's a good idea," Shin said perking up searching for a hollow "there's one over there" Shin said seeing a hollow pass by in the distance. "Hey, woohoo, mister hollow" Shin yelled getting the hollows attention. It looked as thin as a twig and not that powerful at all.

"What are you doing Shin?" Ichigo said raising his voice again "are you trying to get the whole forest after us?"

"I'm asking or directions" Shin said putting her hands on her hips trying to give herself an air of authority. Turning Shin started yelling at the hollow again that seemed to be still with slight confusion at the sight before it. "Mister hollow, could you tell us which way the exit to the desert is?" Shin asked the hollow. The hollow surprisingly just pointed in a different direction to the one that they had been going indicating that they needed to make an almost complete turn around to head towards the exit.

Shin just faced Ichigo smiling a little at the small amount of anger present in his face all while slowly backing away from him.

"Hey shin, what was it that I said before" Ichigo said holding himself back from yelling.

"Uhh…that we could be going the wrong way" Shin said nervously.

"Yeah…I did didn't I, and we were going the wrong way" Ichigo finished yelling.

Shin just closed her eyes thinking that Ichigo was about to hit her, but when nothing happened she opened them only to see Ichigo lightly bonk her on the head and chuckle a little bit.

"I got you" Ichigo said making Shin pout.

"I thought you were going to hit me, and you were really scary for a moment" Shin said.

"Come on let's go" Ichigo said to her motioning them to move forwards.

* * *

(A few hours later)

"Hmm I'm sensing multiple hollows far more powerful than the others we've faced so far," Ichigo said "It must be close, lets start going a bit faster"

"Yeah, ok" Shin replied.

Soon enough a group of hollows came into sight that seemed to be working together. Ichigo and Shin watched closely to count how many there were.

"Strange it's only a group of five, I though the other hollows you talked to said there were nine" Ichigo said to Shin.

Shin just shrugged her shoulders before saying "Maybe they got hungry?"

"Oh well that's not our problem, come on lets go" Ichigo then jumped down and activated his fullbring not missing the slight tingling feeling in his left arm when he did.

Instantly Ichigo jumped out to start attacking the hollows, however they noticed and jumped away and prepared to attack Ichigo. Ichigo just vanished in a flash of green and reappeared beside a hollow preparing to bisect it. The hollow just raised its arm and blocked Ichigo's attack although not without serious consequence as a deep cut was delivered to it causing it to howl in pain. The other hollows though were running to get behind Ichigo and attack and they began to fight.

Shin watched from where Ichigo had jumped down, not having gone down with him because ever since she woke up she could feel as though Ichigo's reishi was trying to break free of some kinds of restraints. She wanted to see if this fight would do it. If not she was there to intervene.

As the fight progressed Ichigo began to feel a burning pain starting to course throughout his body starting from where his new markings were. Going for a slightly more powerful attack than the ones he had previously been using he felt as though he had just broken free of something and a huge surge of black and red reishi enveloped his form.

All the hollows that had been fighting Ichigo until now stopped in surprise to watch the transformation take place. As the reishi subsided it showed Ichigo in his new form. His armor now covered his entire body having also turned black and red at the joints between the armor plates. He now also had a helmet of some kind on his head that fit on perfectly, it had a slit going across in front of his eyes so he could see and another two near his mouth to the sides of it travelling vertically up it for one or two centimetres. His sword had also changed from its machete like form and was now a long sword with the quincy cross as the guard and the same pentagonal piece that was on it before crossing through the quincy cross having the blade come out of it's tip. The bandage like hilt had become ragged and torn turning a dark shade of red.

Ichigo felt more powerful than he ever had, he now looked at the hollows in front of him. They were nothing compared to him now. He was probably at a mid to high-lieutenants level in terms of power. The hollows before him were probably at a low-lieutenants level. Easy.

Within a flash all the hollows before him were destroyed instantly not moving so much as a muscle in the amount of time Ichigo sliced them to pieces.

"Hey Shin I've come up with a new name for you" Ichigo said. Shin just looked expectantly at Ichigo from where she had been perched the entire time Ichigo had fought. "Your name is now Merodī"


	9. Chapter 9

A total of fifteen months had now passed and Ichigo was still in Heuco Mundo. During his travels across the sandy desert he had lost his tan and had gone a little pale from the absence of the sun in the sky. Scars also now riddled his body from all the fighting he has been doing. Heuco Mundo was no place for a human to live if they wanted to live a long life and his current state proved to be evidence of that fact. Merodī, however was faring slightly better in the skin department thanks to her status as a hollow and having regeneration abilities, however she was slightly worried for Ichigo and wanted to help him find a way back home.

_"What was that thing that all the other hollows can use again…was it a gargunt…no, garganta…yeah that was it, stupid me, even I don't know how to make one and it's supposed to be instinct to hollows" _Merodī thought and whined mentally. "_Maybe someone else could show me and help me make one…if they don't kill me first that is"_. Merodī sighed.

"Whats up?" Ichigo asked with a tired voice before yawning.

"You should really get some sleep, even though you've been awake for six months straight and can probably still keep going, I don't think it's healthy for you," Merodī replied "plus I'm still trying to figure out how to make a garganta"

"You're probably the most non-instinct driven hollow I'll ever meet" Ichigo said before shaking his head "but yeah I guess you're right I should take a nap" Ichigo said falling backwards onto the sand arms and legs sprawled out. "I'm going to sleep, keep a look out will ya, and wake me if something happens" Ichigo said falling asleep before Merodī could reply.

"Ahhhh" Merodī groaned. "_We could have found somewhere less exposed"_ Merodī thought "_…but then again where could you hide in a place with nowhere to hide"_ Merodī continued in her head looking around. "_Ah huh… I have the perfect idea, we can hide under the sand"._

About ten minutes later Ichigo woke up coughing and spluttering.

"What the hell!" Ichigo yelled clawing out in front of him.

"Ohh…you're awake" Merodī said as she scratched the back of her head sheepishly "probably not the best idea I've had"

"Yeah what were you trying to do? Kill me!" Ichigo shouted.

"Nope, just trying to use camouflage" Merodī answered "buuuut it didn't work"

"Yeah well now I've slept for a bit lets get moving again" Ichigo said inn fear of getting buried alive by Merodī.

"But it was only a couple of minutes you should sleep some more" Merodī said.

"Don't care," Ichigo said "_and I don't know what else you'll try while I'm sleeping, judging by the dreams you seem to have" _Ichigo shivered. "Well for now lets just find someone hopefully a nice hollow, if that's even possible"

* * *

A few hours later Ichigo and Merodī came across a small group of Adjuchas hollows. What the hollows looked to be so afraid of seemed to be lost to them. Judging by the looks of them they had a superior leader…perhaps the self proclaimed king of Heuco Mundo.

"We can't go to the tree, we'll be killed" said one hollow.

"But if we don't his majesty will kill us himself" said another.

"Hey lets just not go back" the third hollow said.

At this point Ichigo decided to intervene. "Hey guys you wouldn't happen to know any hollows this majesty guy of yours doesn't like? hmm" Ichigo asked the hollows in front of him, Merodī coming up beside him.

"What's it to you? You don't look like one of his majesty's army" the first hollow said.

"We're just looking for some trouble nothing too complicated" Ichigo replied calmly "besides who knows we could do the convincing for you and you could go back to your leader saying you recruited the hollow your king wants" Ichigo proposed to the hollows. Ichigo was unsure of whether they would tell him and go back to their king, probably not, they couldn't go back without doing it themselves and the king would know whether he had more to join his forces depending on whether or not the hollow came to him and pledged to serve.

"Excuse us for a moment please" one of the hollows said before they turned around and huddled in a group to start discussing whether or not they should tell him. This left Ichigo genuinely surprised and confused.

* * *

"Should we tell them?" one hollow said.

"Yeah why not their just going to their deaths anyway if they do go that way" another said.

"Maybe we should tell them of the other one as well, if they really are powerful enough they might be able to convince both" the third said.

"No way that would happen" the first hollow said "the shark woman would never join his majesty's army, it's a waste of time"

"They don't know that" the third said.

"Fine we'll tell them, just hope they don't kill us, we're in a tight spot as it is right now" the second said speaking up again.

* * *

Ichigo yawned as the hollows turned back towards him and Merodī, they sure had taken their sweet time.

"So what is it, you going to tell us or not?" Ichigo said

"We'll tell you, its suicide just to tell you" the apparent leader of the group said "head a couple miles southwest from here and you'll reach a hollowed out white tree, another place you might be interested in if it's what picks your fancy would be another place about eighty miles south of that, some mountains, not many wonder out there, but there's a cave you might find in them somewhere" the hollow said giving Ichigo all he wanted and more. Turning around the hollow then said to his companions "lets get out of here and run away from that crazy guy, but we can't go back to his majesty now".

"Hey whenever did I say I'd let you go" Ichigo said donning his fullbring "if you get caught you might tell this king of yours where or who we are"

"Oh shit run" the hollows said before a green blast took out one of the hollows causing the others to stop and stare wide eyed at the spot where their fellow hollow once stood. Turning around they saw Ichigo standing there with his index finger pointed at the spot where the hollow was, green shards of energy now whirling into a point on his finger.

"Jeez that still takes a bit out of me" Ichigo panted a little forming another on his finger "_At least I know it's probably only because I haven't eaten proper food in a while, if not I'll just have to keep using the regular ones"_. "Hey hollows you ain't going anywhere" Ichigo said grinning before obliterating them. "Come on Merodī, let's go find that tree"

"I swear you're getting worse the longer you stay here" Merodī said

"Then we better find someone to help before I finally lose it, it's only logical" Ichigo said switching demeanor again.

* * *

"Hey is that it?" Merodī said looking into the distance at a tree in the distance distinctly larger than all of the others that they had seen so far in the desert.

"Yeah I think it is, let's check it out and see if there is that hollow the others were talking about" Ichigo said. Ichigo then instantly started using bringer light to approach the tree rapidly, a mistake on his part, one that he found out about as soon as he was hit in the side causing him to rocket back into the sands below him. "Ughhh" Ichigo groaned "_what was that?"_

"It would be wise if you stated your name, business and then left this place, I would rather you did not stay, for you would probably destroy my home judging on the state of your reishi" said an arrancar with pale skin, green iris and green tear like marks below his eyes, he also had half of a helmet like mask on his head and black messy hair, he was dressed in rags of some kind to cover himself up. "Well" he continued emotionlessly "what are you here for?"

"Well I was wondering if you could show me how to make a garganta, you see I kinda forgot" Merodī said coming into view.

"I see…so you are worthless trash, be gone before I make you leave myself" the arrancar said charging a cero on his finger.

"Uhh, let's leave Merodī, we'll go to the other place" Ichigo said starting to sweat before breaking into a sprint running away from the arrancar.

"Yeah, nice meeting you pale man" Merodī shouted out following Ichigo.

"Tsk, worthless trash" the arrancar said before turning around walking back to the tree, which he calls home.

* * *

"That was close" Ichigo said fearing for his life after he detected the power behind the cero "he had to be at least Vasto Lorde class"

"Yeah" Merodī agreed with Ichigo "We're getting close to the mountain range though, I think those hollows were exaggerating its distance from our position, possibly to discourage us from getting close"

"Maybe, but then again us dying shouldn't matter to them" Ichigo said.

* * *

"Harribel-sama there's someone nearby" a lion like hollow said.

"Yes I know Mila-rose, don't get to hasty I have a feeling that they are beyond your level and might give me some trouble if they worked together" Harribel replied.

"Then we'll all go" a deer said walking up beside the two of them shortly followed by a white snake.

"Suit yourself, I'll watch from here and see how you've progressed in your fighting capabilities" Harribel said sitting down in front of the cave entrance.

"Let's show Harribel-sama" they said together.

The three followers of Harribel then jumped down from the cave entrance ledge and waited for the new arrivals. It wasn't long before Ichigo and Merodī arrived on the sands before the cave only to be pounced on by three hollows when they landed. Ichigo quickly dodged out of the way only getting a small nick on his skin where it should have ripped him to pieces if he were a normal human. This slightly surprised the lion hollow before it then redoubled it's efforts to cut Ichigo to pieces. Ichigo just simply dodged to the side once again before disappearing from the hollows sight and reappearing at its side to leap sideways into the hollow and deal a devastating kick to it's side. The hollow just flew into the side of the mountain and failed to get up.

Merodī was faring a little better simply because the deer hollow began to argue with the snake saying that this was it's chance to show Harribel-sama. The snake just made some comments about how childish the deer was acting before taking action and lunging at Merodī trying to tackle her in the chest before backing away and charging a cero. Merodī just used sonido to get behind the deer hollow and kicked the deer in the back causing it to drop to the ground before refocusing on the incoming cero. The snake released the cero at Merodī then dived underneath the sand to come from underneath, although not so fortunate to the fact that Merodī's sensory skills were highly developed allowing her to shoot her own cero at the ground where she sensed the other hollows location.

"That's enough" the hollow perched on the ledge said managing to silence the groans coming from her fellow hollows. "What are you here for?" the hollow questioned. By the appearance of the hollow you could tell she was female and somewhat resembled a humanoid shark, definitely a Vasto Lorde.

Merodī thinking it best if she answered said "We didn't come to fight, I just came here with my friend," Merodī said pointing at Ichigo who seemed somewhat disappointed that the fight had to stop "and I was kind of wondering if you could show me how to make a garganta"

"All hollows know how to make garganta, why do you not?" the Vasto Lorde questioned Merodī.

"I don't know I think it's just been such a long time since I last used one that I forgot…by the way what are your names?" Merodī said.

"A hollow should never forget how to make a garganta…or are you just looking for someone's chain to pull?" the hollow said narrowing her eyes "Besides its best if you say your name first" The hollow said.

"Oh, I'm Merodī" Merodī said pointing at herself "and this is Ichigo" pointing at Ichigo.

"Hi" Ichigo said.

"I'm Tier Harribel, and these are my followers" Harribel said gesturing to the hollows now all lying next to each other trying to regain themselves on their feet.

"I'm Franceska Mila Rose" the lioness spoke up.

"And I'm Emilou Apacci" the deer said.

"And I'm Cyan Sung-Sun" the snake finished.

"Now about my original question, do you really not know how to open a garganta?" Harribel said leaning forwards trying to discern whether or not Merodī was lying.

"Yeah really" Merodī said.

Not detecting any lies in her voice Harribel then spoke up "very well I'll tell you, you just have to focus your hollow reishi in your hand and make a clawing motion while picturing in your mind the air cracking open to reveal a black void, all while picturing your destination at the same time. If you don't do this you could end up anywhere in the human world" Harribel finished turning around and heading back to her cave.

"Thanks, Ichigo can finally go home now" Merodī said causing Harribel to turn around and look at Ichigo trying to depict whether he was a hollow or a human.

"_He has hollow reishi that's for sure, but how did he get it if he's human…well it's none of my concern as long as he isn't my enemy"_ Harribel thought "how long have you been here human"

"Eighteen months about" Ichigo replied.

Harribels eyes widened slightly before turning away again and head off with the other three hollows that followed her.

"Hey Ichigo" Merodī called making Ichigo lose focus on the retreating hollows and refocus on Merodī who was now standing by a portal with a black abyss beyond it. "It's ready" Merodī said smiling.

"Hey Merodī you have to stay here for now, you can't come back with me" Ichigo said.

"But…" Merodī said holding her hand up.

"try to see if you can stay with Harribel for the time being until we meet again, we don't want the reapers sensing you in the human world because they'll surely send someone powerful after you" Ichigo continued.

Merodī sighed and pouted a little before nodding and watching Ichigo jump into the garganta leaving her behind. "Hey Harribel…" Merodī called out.

* * *

Ichigo was currently running through the garganta trying to stay a straight course. It sure was dark in there save for the thousands of sparkling reishi particles that seemed to completely encompass the dark void. Up ahead was a break in the void and Ichigo launched himself through it.


	10. Chapter 10

Gahh. Damn exams held me back from writing anything. Study, study, study plus some more study.

Aaaanyway here's next chapter

* * *

(Present)

After hearing Ichigo's story of Heuco Mundo Karin was really surprised he even made it out alive. Karin was now walking home from school pondering on these thoughts with Rukia beside her whom was trying to figure out what got Karin to think so hard about something and remain so quiet.

"Hey Karin" Rukia said, earning a hum from Karin she continued, "what's been bothering you, you've been really quiet, even by your standards"

"I'm just thinking about some things Ichi-nii told me" Karin replied glancing at Rukia.

This caused Rukia to frown. "_What ever is with that brother of yours, he's abnormally strong for a human and even by most shinigami standards"_ Rukia thought. "Would you mind telling me what he said" Rukia asked.

"That depends I didn't ask Ichi-nii if I could tell you and besides with the way he's been talking it won't be much longer before everyone else finds out" Karin said.

"What do you mean by that?" Rukia said.

"Just what I said it won't be much longer" Karin said a bit annoyed Rukia didn't pick it up the first time.

"Well, well what do we have here, a soul reaper in Karakura town going to child's school, surely you aren't planning to do something with the children or is it miss Kurosaki there who seems to have the powers at the moment" someone said from behind them.

Karin just turned around to see a tall teenager that went to Ichigo's school, Uryuu Ishida. "Stick up his ass guy, we're kinda in a hurry so could you please move along" Karin said causing Uryuu to grow a tick mark above his eye at the comment Karin's brother probably said.

"And I'm guessing you're brother said that about me" Uryuu said.

"Yeah he said something about you staring at him in class one day, you couldn't be oh I don't know a little gay perhaps" Karin said trying to annoy Uryuu as best as she could. It seemed to be working but Uryuu would probably disagree.

"I see your brother mistakes my behavior for something else but never the less I have a challenge for you," Uryuu said "the person to take out the most hollows within twenty four hours wins, up for it?"

"What's it to you?" Karin asked suspiciously.

"I am a Quincy…the last of the Quincy, and I want to prove to you that Quincy's are better than soul reapers" Uryuu said trying to sound mighty in front of the little girl before him while holding a fist in front of his face.

"Nice posing, but seriously look at me I'm just a little girl how am I supposed to do better than a teenager, and besides, I'll cut your head off if you've found a way to bring over more hollows for your stupid game" Karin said mocking and threatening Uryuu.

"Gah, stupid soul reapers" Uryuu whispered reaching into his pocket pulling out a capsule. "This is hollow bait" Uryuu said holding the small capsule out so Karin and Rukia could see it. "If I break this hollows will instantly come through garganta's all over town and it will be your job to beat me in hollow kills"

"Wait people could get hurt" Karin yelled at him.

"When did I ever say I would let that happen" Uryuu said with a slight smile "and if you don't want it to happen either you better get to them before I do". Uryuu then snapped the bait in his hand and hollows instantly started pouring out of black voids all across town. "Well I'll be off then Kurosaki" Uryuu then took off using hiyrenkyaku.

Rukia just looked at her hollow detector for a moment seeing over a hundred red blips and ore beginning to decorate the screen. Grabbing Yukasa from her pocket handing the mod-soul to Karin, she began to tell Karin that there were hollows everywhere and it didn't matter which way she went she just had to kill the hollows.

Karin swallowed the green pill and turned into her shinigami form. "Yukasa go home and tell Ichi-nii about what's happening and look after Yuzu" Karin said not looking at Yukasa but in the direction she was leaving. Yukasa just nodded before sprinting home.

* * *

(Ichigo)

Ichigo ran along the rooftops at high speed so that if anyone were to see he would just be a blur. "_Damn that Uryuu, why did he have to try and prove his superiority to the shinigami, he'll just fail_" Ichigo thought. Ichigo then jumped through the air and sliced a few hollows killing them instantly.

As Ichigo neared home he could see Karin running toward the house "_wait no that's not Karin, that's the mod-soul she has"_. "Hey" Ichigo said appearing next to the mod-soul "what's happening here?"

"Eep, you scared me," Yukasa said in surprise "It's really bad, a boy called Uryuu came up to Karin and challenged her to a competition to see who could kill the most hollows within twenty-four hours"

"I see…" Ichigo paused to think for a moment "I'll let her handle it for now and step in if she misses some or someone's about to get hurt" Ichigo finished. "You should get back home and make sure Yuzu is safe" Ichigo said before taking off to monitor the little challenge the Quincy had set up against his sister.

"I was already going to do that" Yukasa called out to him only to get no reply. Sighing Yukasa continued to run home to protect Yuzu from any hollows that wondered their way.

* * *

As Ichigo continued to run he expanded his senses to detect all the hollows and souls within the area to try and find Karin's current location. "_Karin seems to be doing fine, they are only low-level hollows though so it's expected_" Ichigo thought. "_Tatsuki seems to be busy as well…and the others…hm, it seems Chad and Orihime have gained some kind of abilities as well, maybe I should check on them…" _Ichigo's thoughts paused for a moment as he sensed two others enter his field of vision ahead of him although they seemed to have not noticed each other yet. One of them was the perverted shopkeeper from the Shouten and the other one looked vaguely familiar as if he knew them from somewhere "_no way, what's she doing here? She should still be in Heuco Mundo with Harribel and the other Adjuchas_". Ahead of him was Merodī.

Ichigo quickly ducked out of both Merodī and the shopkeeper's vision and made his way around them to Merodī, only pausing when the occasional hollow got in his way and he had to kill it. Once he got near Merodī he grabbed her by wrapping an arm around her waist and flashing out of sight just as the shopkeeper began to turn around sensing the disturbance behind him.

"Hmm, strange…I could have sworn someone was just there," the Urahara mused to himself "well, it's not of any importance at the moment, I have to check up on Ichigo's friends, Karin might need their help later and they need to know what's going on"

* * *

(Training/temporary home establishment warehouse)

When Ichigo finally stopped he was inside the warehouse that he and Tatsuki used for training. Dropping Merodī unceremoniously causing her to squeak a little before turning to face her captor, eyes widening at the realisation of who it was.

"What are you doing here Merodī? Aren't you supposed to be with Harribel and her band of hollows" Ichigo asked however he didn't get an answer and was tackled rather roughly to the ground in the arrancar's back breaking hug.

"It's been such a long time Ichigo, and how did you find me? This weird cloak is supposed to stop people from being able to sense me" Merodī said while tugging on some fabric of the cloak backing off Ichigo after noticing how blue he was getting.

"Well…the cloak…doesn't stop people…from seeing you now…does it?" Ichigo said while gasping for air, head held back to make it easier for himself.

"Hehe" Merodī laughed sheepishly "guess I didn't think of that"

Ichigo finally catching his breath turned back to face Merodī. Ichigo noticed that over the years it seemed as though Merodī had filled out a bit as she got older, she now looked a lot prettier in Ichigo's perspective having grown slightly taller and developed her womanly charms, as Ichigo would have put it.

It didn't take long for Merodī to notice this and she began to try and make a face to look as innocent as possible and said "now why would you be staring at me like that Ichigo, hm? Wouldn't happen to see anything you like?" Merodī purred seductively causing Ichigo to start blushing furiously and turn away from her.

"Still like that are you Merodī? I won't give in to your perverted nature" Ichigo said turning back with hands over his face and a gap in between his fingers.

"Me a pervert?" Merodī questioned innocently "my, I have no idea what you are talking about however I could say that your just saying that to cover up your own perverted nature" Merodī began to giggle a little, liking the reactions that she was getting from Ichigo.

"I have no idea what you are talking about" Ichigo said crossing his arms and turning his head a little to try and give himself an air of confidence, however after a moment it turned back into a serious expression. "Alright, we've had our fun" Ichigo said "now what are you doing here Merodī?"

Merodī sighed and said "before I explain is there somewhere more comfortable to sit the grounds really gravely and I think it might cause my bum to hurt for a while" while standing up pointing to her rear.

"Yeah out the back I renovated this place a little in case I ever stayed here for a while come on" Ichigo said gesturing for Merodī to follow him.

* * *

(In town)

Karin was panting, she had been going at this for several hours now and there didn't seem to be any decrease in the flow of hollows into the human world. "_Just where are they all coming from"_ Karin thought while plowing through a few more hollows.

"Having trouble miss Kurosaki" Uryuu said readjusting his glasses with his index finger only to fire another shot straight after completely destroying another hollow "I wouldn't want to accidentally get you killed" Uryuu continued.

"None at all" Karin said "what about you, you look a little pale there, sure you don't need to stop" Karin joked a little.

"I'm not pale, I'm just a little drained, nothing to worry about" Uryuu shot back launching himself again into the distance to combat more of the hollows.

Karin sighed and went back to slaying more hollows that stood in her path, not noticing the slight crack that had begun to grow in the sky far above her.

* * *

(With Ichigo and Merodī)

"So, you've joined up with the shinigami Aizen because Harribel did and you're now the fifth espada" Ichigo said receiving a small nod from Merodī. Ichigo sighed "that's a lot to take in, although congrats on being the fifth strongest hollow in Heuco Mundo"

"Thanks, although I have to keep my guard up around Los Noches, the espada below me has a thing against women being stronger than him, other than that it's fine, oh yeah and Apache, Sung-sun and Mila Rose are all there as well although they're Harribel's fraccion" Merodī said to Ichigo. "We're all good friends now so I tend to hang around them often, I don't have any of my own fraccion"

"Really well that's good news" Ichigo said "you now have more than one friend"

"Yeah but Sung-sun usually keeps to herself reading a book, Apache and Mila usually fight about something usually relating to the subject that Mila has bigger boobs than Apache, and Harribel is usually quiet except when there's something to talk about or she wishes to make input into a conversation, other than that it's pretty quiet" Merodī said. "It was better when you were around" Merodī sighed "at least you were more interesting to talk to" Merodī said looking at Ichigo noticing he was now sitting with his head back over the headrest of the chair he was sitting on contemplating the circumstances they were in with Aizen defecting to the hollow realm. How ever Merodī didn't allow this to last long as she swung herself onto Ichigo straddling lap and gripped his face between her hands pulling him towards her.

"Hey what are you doing?" Ichigo said only to be silenced by Merodī who put a finger to his lips. Only then did Ichigo realize the position that they were in causing him to redden.

"Shh, you know Ichigo those few years you weren't there I felt really lonely, I realized that I needed you with me, which leads us to why the way that I've been acting with you in Heuco Mundo clearer, I didn't just like you it was bordering on something else" Merodī said.

"Look…" Ichigo sighed "Merodī, I really like you, I do, but aren't you dead…I mean I'm not dead yet and even then I'd either forget all about you turning into a hollow or the same would happen if I were to be sent to Soul Society"

"Not necessarily" Merodī said "your sister has soul reaper powers and if her body were to die she would retain her memories because she is already a shinigami, if you were to become one as well I don't think I would see a problem there now, would you?" Ichigo grumbled a bit before agreeing that she was right. "Now there, problem solved" Merodī said. Merodī leaned in to kiss Ichigo and Ichigo went with it. Breaking the kiss Merodī said "there that wasn't so bad now was it?"

"Yeah but if anyone found out we'd be in deep shit" Ichigo replied.

"Oh well secrets can't be kept forever," Merodī said shrugging "now lets use that bed over there" she whispered into his ear.

"What about Karin I can't leave her" Ichigo said trying to get out of the predicament he was slowly but surely falling into.

"I'm sure that Tatsuki you told me about a while ago can take care of it" Merodī said coercing him to take her over to the bed that seemed conveniently laid out for them. Ichigo gave up and brought them both over to the bed and they began feverishly kissing each other.

* * *

(With Karin)

"What is that!" Karin yelled seeing a giant being wrapped in a dark cloak appear through the void that had opened up in the sky.

Karin was currently in a park with Uryuu and the shopkeeper who had introduced himself as Urahara Kisuke plus his assistants Jinta, a small red haired boy with a giant metal club slung casually over his shoulder, Ururu another small girl with what seemed to be a large gun of sorts sitting on her shoulder, last of all Tessai Tsukabishi.

"That miss is a Menos Grande," Urahara said fan tipped to its side in front of his mouth in his right hand while the other gripped onto his cane. "Well go on you have to kill it before it harms any of the souls here, we'll take care of the smaller ones" Urahara gestured to the ones surrounding them.

"Ok, come on Uryuu we've gotta kill the big one" Karin said sprinting off to kill the Menos.

"Hey, don't boss me around" Uryuu said chasing after Karin.

* * *

(Orihime, Chad, Tatsuki and Urahara plus assistants, On bridge overlooking Karin Vs Menos)

"Now look over there," Urahara pointed to Karin and Uryuu who seemed to be arguing over how to fight the Menos causing a few to face palm. "That is Karin Kurosaki, Ichigo's sister, for a while now she has been performing the duty of a shinigami by going around and purifying all the souls of the dead and killing all those monster's you saw called hollows, that big one there is an example of the next level. Later after all of this has ended Karin will need your help Chad and Orihime…what are you doing here again miss Arisawa?"

"I'm here to make sure Orihime doesn't get herself killed fighting the hollows dumbass," Tatsuki stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world "it's kinda strange you haven't been able to detect my reiryoku all these years, suppression practice really does work after all"

"Miss Arisawa you barely have any reiryoku on you at all, and if you really are suppressing it could you release a little for us now" Urahara said curious as to what kind of strength Tatsuki could posses.

"Fine" Tatsuki said and with that she let loose a torrent of reiatsu rivaling that of a third seat shinigami, surprising Urahara greatly. Suppressing her reishi once more Tatsuki said, "satisfied"

"Yes…but I must ask where did you learn to control your own reiryoku and get so strong to the extent that you could possibly fight on par with a third seat shinigami?" Urahara questioned.

"You'll find out soon enough" Tatsuki said.

"Hmm, very well then," Urahara said and he turned back to the fight between the Menos and Karin who had now abandoned Uryuu to fight the Menos herself.

* * *

(Karin)

"Come back you fool" Uryuu yelled at Karin who was charging head first into battle against the Menos.

As Karin arrived at the base of the Menos she stopped to think about what to do for a moment.

"Karin watch out that's a cero" Rukia shouted to get Karin's attention. "If you get hit by that there's a high chance you'll die"

Karin looked up to see a red sphere of energy charging at the mouth of the Menos. "But someone might get hurt" Karin yelled back "I have to stop it."

Karin then drew both of her swords and put them above her head in a crossed position to get ready to hold the cero back only moments before it exploded and flew straight at her. Karin braced herself and the cero hit forcing her to her knees in an instant from the initial impact.

"Karin!" Rukia yelled out trying to see whether or not Karin was about to be obliterated by the Menos' cero.

"Arrrggg" Karin groaned from the force of the cero colliding with her zanpakuto. Slowly but surely Karin began forcing herself to her feet releasing more reishi with each passing moment. Eventually Karin was standing on both feet with her swords high above her head while looking into the cero that was being cast upon her. With great strength Karin crouched down and brought her arms closer to herself before lunging upwards and swinging her arms out letting a wave of reishi emit from both zanpakuto cutting through the cero and injuring the Menos severely. This caused the Menos to retreat back into the void from which it came.

"I did it" Karin said before collapsing onto the ground panting.

* * *

(Next day, with Ichigo)

"Oh crap what happened" Ichigo yawned waking up from sleep. Suddenly he felt something warm up against his chest and he looked down to see what it was only to see Merodī there with her back to him comfortably snuggled up next to him asleep.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up" someone said from behind Ichigo.

Ichigo had a sudden sense and feeling of dread as he turned around to see Tatsuki there sitting on a chair arms crossed looking at Ichigo. "Hey Tatsuki" Ichigo said sheepishly.

"You idiot," Tatsuki yelled causing Merodī to shift a little "I've been trying to hook you and Orihime up for ages, sure I knew you two were friends" Tatsuki said gesturing to the form of Merodī next to Ichigo "but I didn't think you had gone this far"

"Neither did I for a while" Ichigo said.

"Oh just shut up…you're gonna have to tell Orihime that you're with someone else now" Tatsuki said sighing. "Well come on we've got school to go to, I brought your stuff over, Karin packed it for you. I'm sure sleeping beauty wouldn't mind if you left her to wake up by herself, just leave a note and some breakfast from the fridge out the back" Tatsuki got up to leave to let Ichigo dress. From outside the door Tatsuki called back to Ichigo again "oh and we might have to teach Orihime and Chad how to use their fullbring, just to let you know if you didn't sense it yesterday from your…activities"

"Yeah I felt it, bye Tatsuki, see you at school" Ichigo said sitting up to rub to rub his eyes and get ready for school.

* * *

Review Please.


	11. Chapter 11

Sorry about update time but the internet has been dropping in and out rather frequently for some reason and then it crashed altogether for about two days and only after that did I start writing this again

* * *

(Karakura high)

Today was a rather boring day, there were no hollows, strange to say the least, maybe it had to do with Merodī being in Karakura? Who knows but Ichigo was bored stiff. Ochi sensei was in the front of the class explaining something about maths? Or was it literature? Who cares, Ichigo could just catch up later if he hadn't already taught himself about it. It was what Ichigo did in his spare time learn ahead so he could do other stuff with his life and pretend to be amused or at least appear to be listening in class, it wasn't like he was falling behind or anything, he was after all ranked about third…fourth…fifth maybe somewhere along those lines anyway. It hadn't taken long for Ichigo to up his grades with all the studying he had to do for the missing year of education that was spent in Heuco Mundo.

"_The shinigami Rukia has been here for what over a month now surely something is going to happen tonight_," Ichigo thought "_Merodī's still here though, I should probably check up on her at lunch"_

"…Mr Kurosaki" Ochi sensei bellowed "are you listening or not"

"Yes" Ichigo drawled out and held his book up as proof and went back to pondering his thoughts a little while longer before the bell went.

* * *

(Rooftop)

"Hey Ichigo where are you going?" Tatsuki said as she appeared coming up the stairs closely followed behind by all their friends.

"What do you mean where he's going?" Keigo whined "Ichigo where're you going?"

"That's none of your business" Ichigo replied to them making Keigo cry at the fact that he was Ichigo's "best friend" and he wasn't telling him.

Tatsuki began to settle into a small smirk "so that's mmpghhmghp" Tatsuki never got to finish as Ichigo's hands smothered her mouth preventing her from saying anything.

"Don't say anything" Ichigo whispered into her ear.

Tatsuki forced Ichigo's hands away from her mouth and said "relax, I was just confirming it anyway, it's not like half of these guys know about the dead, it'd be a pain in the ass explaining it all to them"

"Fine" Ichigo grumbled slightly "don't say a thing about her and not about my powers yet either, it's gotta be a surprise" Ichigo said walking away from Tatsuki "sorry guys I gotta go check something, see you all later" Ichigo just waved his hand in the air for the others behind him to see while he left the rooftop and went down the stairs.

Keigo leaned over to Mizuiro and said "what was that all about?"

"I don't know Keigo, maybe you should ask Tatsuki instead" Mizuiro replied.

"Hey Tatsuki why did Ichigo leave? You seem to know" Keigo said confusedly.

"Ahh it's nothing, although…if your lucky you might find out" Tatsuki said cryptically before heading over to sit where everyone else had wandered off to on the rooftop.

"Hey come back here, what do you mean" Keigo waved his arms comically trying to get a response other than an if.

* * *

(Warehouse)

As Ichigo entered the warehouse he noticed that Merodī still hadn't gotten up due to the fact that her clothes were still on the floor and she appeared to be sleeping soundly in the bed, well either that or she simply got breakfast with no intention of putting her clothes back on what so ever…yeah that sounded like something she might do.

"Merodī, hey wake up Merodī" Ichigo began to shake her lightly quickly getting her to stir awake "hey come on it's already one in the afternoon" Ichigo began to shake her a bit more.

"Wait…" Merodī drawled still half asleep "one in the afternoon" Merodī continued while rolling over to face Ichigo receiving a small nod in reply. Merodī was about to roll back over to go to sleep when a sudden realization dawned on her, Harribel was probably expecting her today, "_wait it's just this once, I could probably say I went out to investigate the Menos forest or something similar to that, yeah"_ Merodī though and resolved her thoughts turning back over to go to sleep.

Ichigo just sighed and shook his head "come on Merodī wouldn't someone back at Los Noches be expecting you," Ichigo said receiving a muffled response from Merodī "What was that?"

"I said" Merodī's voice now clear "not really, Harribel will probably visit Starrk-san and the other three will just continue to fight between themselves for entertainment, besides I'm known for taking trips for a couple of days to an unspecified location and then returning, it's not like I'll be hanged"

"Whatever, I have to go now and you will have to leave soon as well assuming that your time for return is nearly up" Ichigo said turning around to head out the door only to be stopped as a pair of arms encompassed him from behind. "What is it getting lonely already?"

"No" Merodī shook her head "you were leaving so I was saying goodbye because your right, I have kind of overstayed and the other espada will be expecting me to return anytime soon now." Merodī released Ichigo and turned around to pick her clothes up off the floor to get dressed before pausing "hey do you have a shower here or something?" Merodī questioned.

"Through that door over there" Ichigo pointed out before walking out the front door of the small living quarters saying goodbye to Merodī and leaving the warehouse.

* * *

(Ichigo)

Merodī had finally left via garganta back to Heuco Mundo and Ichigo was perched atop a lamp post watching Rukia trying to somehow hide herself from the pursuing shinigami by running through the dead of night in the light of the lamp posts…jeez kinda stupid, but anyway.

Ichigo felt two presences closing in on her and fast, it was sure to be over quickly. "_Strange they feel like they are captain and lieutenant level shinigami…but why send such high…wait stupid Ichigo, Merodī already told you that the bastard Aizen is looking for hogy-thingy, but Rukia doesn't have it, does she?"_

* * *

(Rukia)

"Rukia we've found you now" a voice said causing Rukia to freeze still and turn to face the person behind her only to see her once best friend and brother there in front of her.

"Renji" Rukia said "what are you doing here?" Rukia started to sound frightened.

Renji just began to close the gap between them while Rukia stood still. "We're here to pick you up," Renji said smiling, however this didn't last long as a dark look on his face appeared "and to kill the human that stole your powers" Renji's hand then began to slide to his hilt as though threatening Rukia on the whereabouts of the human.

* * *

(Kurosaki residence)

Karin looked everywhere she couldn't find Rukia in her usual spot that is until she found the note placed on her bed by Rukia.

"Why are there so many b's in it?" Karin said picking up a pencil and crossing out all the letters that didn't seem to fit. "There, Dear Karin sorry but I must leave before they find me and you, I have come to call you my friend over this time but it must end unless we both die" Karin read it out loud to herself. "Stupid Rukia," Karin muttered "Yukasa where are you?"

"Mmphgmhghpm" a muffled voice could be heard from the bathroom.

Karin went and quickly located the source of the noise behind the toilet. "Hey what happened?" Karin said to Yukasa as she removed the tape that bound her in place.

"Rukia was so mean" Yukasa screeched "she said she was leaving but didn't say where to and tied me up behind the toilet"

"Ok, ok, I'm gonna need you tolook after my body for a while, while I go out to find Rukia and see what's up" Karin said while shoveling her hand into the plushies mouth and grabbing the green pill that lay inside. Karin swallowed the pill and was ejected from her body.

"Hey you promised not to do that anymore" Yukasa almost whined looking at Karin.

"Do I have the weird glove? No, so quit whining" Karin said and ran to the nearest window before leaping out of it.

* * *

(Rukia)

Suddenly a blue bolt of energy flashed between Rukia and Renji dangerously close to killing either of them. "I would suggest that you moved away from the girl shinigami" Uryuu said appearing from the shadows coming into the light of the street lamps "I wouldn't want to accidentally kill you" Uryuu continued "and before you ask Kuchiki-san I did not come here just so I could kick some shinigami's senseless, no I had run out of thread and sunflower seeds and needed to go to the convenience store and you happened to be here on my way back. Now I couldn't just leave a defenseless woman to fend for herself so here I am offering my assistance"

Suddenly Uryuu saw a flash of pink before his blood decorated the pavement. "Foolish boy" the other shinigami said, he was wearing a white haori with the number six on it.

"Hey who are you?" someone said jumping down from a telegraph pole "and why did you hurt Uryuu?" Karin said.

"Are you the one that stole Rukia's powers" Renji said looking Karin up and down.

"No, you must have just missed them I think I saw them pass by me not too long ago" Karin replied blankly.

"Really?" Renji said a little stupidly relaxing his stance a little at hearing Karin's words.

"Do not let the child's lies deceive you, she is the one" the stoic man said from behind Renji causing him growl with irritation as he just believed the words that came out of her mouth.

"Wow, I didn't think it would work that well" Karin said taking a little step back feigning amazement.

"Karin run your no match for them" Rukia screamed at Karin.

"_Ichi-nii said that this would happen, now I just have to play along"_ Karin thought while sliding her right hand to the hilt of one of her zanpakuto. "No stupid, if I did that you'd be taken away for no reason at all" Karin said.

Renji in turn of seeing Karin start to draw her zanpakuto did the same with his and held it in front of him. Renji then began to step forward and slowly pick up the pace breaking into a run before swinging his sword at Karin who held her sword up in defense. Karin was knocked back a few feet from the force of the blow but managed to stay upright before charging in herself. Karin swung upwards with her sword to try and land a blow from underneath but was blocked by Renji who used this chance to slide his sword along Karin's to try and cut at her hands, however Karin just took one hand off her sword momentarily to draw the other, holding it in a reverse grip to block Renji's counter. Unfortunately for Karin having only one hand on her sword hilt proved to be to weak against Renji's slash and the blade nicked Karin as her sword was pushed away.

Renji used this opportunity to strike again and managed to slash at Karin several more times because she was too slow to keep up and she wasn't strong enough to keep up with Renji's vicious strikes.

"Enough fooling around Abari, finish her so we can head back" the other shinigami said.

"Fine…Roar Zabimaru" Renji said, as soon as he finished his sword transformed into a pronged blade with six segments. Renji then immediately swept the blade out in front of him and it extended towards Karin and connected with the two blades that she held to her side to try and fend off his attack. However Karin couldn't put up with Renji's sudden increase in power and her arms gave in and she was thrown to the side while the blade cut deep into her side rendering her movements useless from the pain that was also inflicted.

"Well all was good human, until you came along now die!" Renji shouted as he swung his sword once more overhead this time and imbedded itself in…the ground. "What!? Where did she go" Renji cried out frantically looking all around him.

"Behind you" a voice said before he was slashed across his back.

Renji crumpled to his knees and looked behind himself to see Karin there blood coating her sword. "Now it's time to finish this" Karin said as she raised her left arm to bring down one of her zanpakuto.

Renji sat there waiting for his death, but nothing happened. Opening his eyes he saw the girl, Karin face first on the ground bleeding out from a cut in her chest where her soul chain and sleep were and the top half of her blade was missing. Looking over to his captain he saw the man drop half a blade lazily to the ground before turning to open a senkaimon.

Once the man had opened the gate he turned back to view the girl on the ground. He then looked up and away trying to find the source that caused her to accelerate so rapidly, and with a movement that he's never seen before…strange. "_Whoever it was is very good at hiding themselves,_" he thought "_and very fast, I almost missed it…but there was someone there._" Looking back down to where the girl lay once more he signaled for Renji to follow and left without a trace, taking Rukia with him.

"Sheesh, that was close" Ichigo said as soon as he appeared before Karin and immediately started working on her wounds.

"Well, well now," someone said from behind Ichigo "this is interesting, I didn't expect to find you here Kurosaki-san"

"_It's that perverted shopkeeper isn't it"_ Ichigo thought turning around "_yep, it is, damn I should'v noticed him, hmm, oh well it was going to happen sooner or later."_ "Hello to you too" Ichigo replied "can we discuss this later, right now my sister needs medical attention and I'd rather not take much longer for her to get it"

"Why of course," the shopkeeper said jovially "follow me" he said turning around waving the fan in front of his face leaving Ichigo to pick up Karin and follow the man to his destination.


	12. Chapter 12

"_Hmm…uhh, w…where am I" _Karin thought as she slowly opened her eyes and senses to the world that evaded her in her sleep only to wake up to some sort of commotion that appeared to be in another room consisting of her brothers and Urahara's voices.

"Aww, come on don't call me that we can be friends" Urahara whined.

"Absolutely not," Karin heard Ichigo reply "not until you've proven yourself more than a child trapped in a mans body or that you have some kind of multiple personality disorder will I call you by your name Getaboshi" Ichigo continued to yell.

"I'll give you some free stuuuuff" Urahara said in a sing-song voice trying to bribe Ichigo.

"No!" that was all that Karin heard from Ichigo before there was a loud crash, the sound of a door opening and nothing.

"_Hmm, maybe they're outside"_ Karin thought rolling over to her right. There in front of her was a large man lying underneath the blanket with her. Instantly Karin freaked out "ahh, rape" Karin screamed before running through the various paper walls that made up the store.

"_May as well go tell boss that she's awake_" the man thought.

The man then got up and opened each of the doors to the other end of the store even though they already had gaping holes in them. As soon as he reached the other end he opened up a hidden compartment that seemed to go below the shop and into a basement. The man entered and descended the ladder.

* * *

(Urahara's basement)

At the bottom of the ladder two combatants were fighting between themselves to the death…well maybe not to the death but the shopkeeper certainly looked to be near with the amount of bruises and apparently broken bones he was sporting.

"Now stop with that childish attitude of yours" Ichigo practically whined "it's getting so annoying it's almost unbearable"

"Oh but it's so much fun when I know that I haven't been touched all this time, I can just keep taunting you" Urahara said before his body popped and was replaced with materials akin to that of a balloon.

"What?" Ichigo said. He was getting really confused now, had he been beating up a balloon until now? If so, then where was he?

"I call it the inflatable gigai" Urahara said as he appeared from out behind a rock that had risen from the upturned earth. "It's quite useful but difficult to manage"

"Boss," a man started to call out to Urahara "she's awake"

"Ah, thank you Tessai" Urahara replied to the Tessai who was now behind Ichigo trying to restrain him from charging at Urahara again. "Now Ichigo," Urahara said facing Ichigo "why don't we go talk to your sister, hm," Urahara continued. Urahara then began to walk towards the exit with his fan waving in front of his face all the while humming to himself.

* * *

(Karin)

_Huff, huff._ "I think I lost him" Karin said to herself out loud as she slowed to a stop from the run that she was . "_But who was he anyway"_

"Hey Karin," Tatsuki's voice sounded from behind Karin "what are you doing up and running about? And with almost nothing covering you. You're supposed to be resting"

At that moment Karin looked down at herself and found what Tatsuki said to be true. She was only wearing pants and the bandages across her chest.

"It's better than nothing" Karin said turning around before a sudden realization hit her "hey what do you know about my injuries? Wait you saw everything didn't you?" Karin said almost accusingly pointing a finger at Tatsuki.

"Nope," Tatsuki said much to Karin's surprise "Ichigo did, he's back at the candy shop," Tatsuki continued pointing a finger over her shoulder "Urahara shouten I think it was, he took you there so that the shopkeeper could help you get your soul reaper powers back"

"Do you have powers like Ichigo does Karin asked Tatsuki in a calmer voice now. "_There's no way she could have just appeared behind me like that, I would have heard her running"_

"Yep," Tatsuki replied "although he's a lot stronger than me and our powers are a little different, come on I'll get you back before they wonder where you are" Tatsuki said holding her hand out to Karin who took the hand before she felt the sudden acceleration of flying into the air with Tatsuki. "Hold on it won't take long" Tatsuki said before slinging Karin onto her back to hold her there for the remainder of the trip.

"How do you do this?" Karin asked Tatsuki "flying through the air I mean"

"It's not something you can just learn" Tatsuki replied before pausing to think over it again "…actually it might be possible later but you need to have fullbring powers I'm pretty sure, ask Ichigo he's had it for longer than I have. All I can say now is that when you get your soul reaper powers back you will be able to perform a similar ability the soul reapers call flashstep. There is another level to it, however not many people now about it, how to attain it or just simply aren't strong enough to use it. Technically it could kill you if your not ready. Ichigo would get you to at least captain level first before he taught you anything of the sort. He won't even show me yet" Tatsuki explained.

Just as Tatsuki finished the Shouten came into view and people were outside it. In the dark it made it hard to figure out some of their appearances but it could clearly be said that there was Tessai, Urahara and Ichigo standing outside the Shouten.

"Hey Karin where were you going?" Ichigo asked tilting his head to the side with a questioning look on his face wondering as to why she had taken off.

"That weird guy was lying down next to me and I thought he was some kind of creep so I screamed my head off at him and ran for it" Karin replied casually waving her hands about in weird gestures trying to get the feelings across of having a weird man lying next to her when she woke up. She was just a little girls for crying out loud she didn't need those kind of nightmares.

"So I can tell" Ichigo said slowly looking back at the Shouten to see the massive hole that had been ripped through the door where Kari had run it through. "Aaaanyyyway," Ichigo said looking back at Karin while pointing a thumb to his side at Urahara "this creep here is going to help you get your powers back, how? I don't know, but it better not be anything too dangerous" Ichigo said starting to growl.

"Ohh Ichigo my dear, do you not trust the genius that stands before you" Urahara said, Ichigo was about to reply when Urahara cut him off and continued "of course you do, now follow me, your training begins if you wish to save miss Kuchiki that is" Urahara stopped for a moment to look over his shoulder at Karin while his fan was still in front of his face.

"Of course I do, what kind of stupid question is that" Karin said while walking to follow Urahara into the Shouten.

"Very well come along then, let's begin your training" Urahara said.

With that over and done with the only ones left outside were Ichigo and Tatsuki…and a cat.

"What are you looking at? And where did you come from? You weren't here a moment ago" Ichigo said narrowing his eyes at the cat while lowering himself into a squatting position.

"Ichigo it's just a cat, what's it gonna do? Talk back to you? Not likely" Tatsuki said crossing her arms. "_But I do still feel something suspicious about that cat, it doesn't seem…normal"_

"Now why can't a cat talk back to you?" the cat said in a deep voice making both of the teens jump back and hold a look of shock on their faces.

"The cat talked!" both Ichigo and Tatsuki shouted.

"Shut up, people are trying to sleep" someone shouted in the distance "and cats don't talk, what are you kids on now days, jeez"

"Maybe we should go inside" the cat said turning around to bound up the steps and into the shop.

"You think something's strange about the cat" Tatsuki said to Ichigo while watching the cat carefully as it made it's way into the house.

"Yeah, cats don't talk so it can't be a cat" Ichigo said "who knows, there could be some weird power out there that allows people to turn into cats"

"Possible but unlikely," Tatsuki said "but who cares we'll just give it to Orihime, and watch as the life leaves its eyes while she crushes it" Tatsuki said evilly.

"Orihime may give you bone cruching border death hugs but that doesn't warrant for you to allow her to accidentally crush a cat" Ichigo said, but then he gained an evil grin "lets toy around with it untill it either reverts back to human form or runs away"

Tatsuki nodded and they entered the shouten to tease the cat

"Hey come here little cat" both teens said with an evil grin as they looked all over the shop for the cat.

"I can't find it" Ichigo said " what about you"

"Same here" Tatsuki said slumping to the ground. "Shouldn't you check up on Karin? She's been with that maniac for some time now, who knows when she'll finish her so called training"

"Within the next three days, if not she will become a hollow and she will have to be killed" Urahara said coming through a door in the room holding the cat in his arms. What he said caused their eyes to widen.

"What do you mean she'll turn into a hollow if she doesn't finish her training" Ichigo said rushing acros the room to where Urahara stood gripping him by his green haori.

"Exactly that Kurosaki-kun, if she doesn't complete it she **will** turn into a hollow in three days" Urahara said seriously " and we **will **have to kill her, unless you have some way of saving her"

Ichigo just growled at him with anger and frustration at the predicament that Urahara had put his sister into. "_What do I do?"_ Ichigo thought. And then it hit him, he could do it but that was worst-case possible scenario that he could think of. Karin turning into a hollow was the worst outcome, but he could make sure she stays safe. "I'm leaving for a bit," Ichigo said letting go of Urahara's haori and marching out the door. Ichigo then stopped for a second and looked over his shoulder "don't worry if I'm gone for a day or two but I'll be back" Ichigo said before disappearing.

"Hmm, where do you think he's gone miss Arisawa" Urahara said suspiciously eyeing her from the shadow of his hat and behind his fan.

"It doesn't matter, as long as he succeeds Karin will be fine no matter what" Tatsuki replied before getting up to go keep watch on Karin. "Don't even try to follow him he's already gone"

Urahara just watched Tatsuki leave to keep Karin company before looking at the cat in his arms. "Do you think you could follow him Yoruichi?" Urahara asked.

"No, what Tatsuki said is true that is if this person to go to is either in soul society or Heuco Mundo or some place I probably won't be able to find without a lead, that means I won't be able to find him before he finds them, that's assuming he has the means to get to either place, Soul Society sounds more plausible though, any intelligent being in Heuco Mundo would more likely slaughter you and take your stuff before an intelligent conversation can be brought on and the amount of people in the living world that would go to Heuco Mundo or Soul Society is almost zero"

"That makes it the perfect spot Yoruichi, no one would even bother to look in Heuco Mundo however until we know from him we can't tell so we have no leads like you said, now come on lets get back to Karin" Urahara said.

* * *

"Stupid Urahara, stupid cat" Ichigo mumbled to himself as he traversed the sands of Heuco Mundo. Kicking up a mound of sand Ichigo finally decided to look out for the Los Noches Merodī had told him about. It was supposed to be massive, not that Ichigo could see it at the moment he was looking at the ground moping to himself about how Karin could turn into a hollow. "Where was that place now" Ichigo said aloud to himself finally picking his gaze off of the ground to look into the distance. "There's nothing there" Ichigo continued. "Oomph" Ichigo breathed out as he felt something slam into him at high speeds nocking him off the ground and into the air before he fell to the ground and tumbled a fair distance before he finally stopped.

"Ichigo what are you doing here?" a familiar voice asked excitedly. From behind all while giving him a bone-crushing hug.

"Merodī? What are you doing out here?" Ichigo wheezed out. "And could you let go you're going to kill me because of my lack of oxygen" Ichigo continued struggling to get out of Merodī's grasp.

"Sorry," Merodī said letting go of Ichigo allowing him to sit up. "But really what are you doing here? If the others find out you could get killed"

"It's ok I'm not staying long anyway" Ichigo said "I've come to ask a favor to be done if need be"

"Sure, anything" Merodī said smiling before looking at him questioningly "why though, you don't come to Heuco Mundo ever, and you said you would only do so in emergencies"

"Yeah I'm here to say that if my sister becomes a hollow in the next three days will you look after her?" Ichigo asked Merodī turning his head around to look at her face.

"Why would she become a hollow?" Merodī said.

"Just say yes or no" Ichigo said.

"Of course but I want to know why" Merodī said getting up to go and sit in front of Ichigo.

"A soul reaper came to Karakura and she gave my sister soul reaper powers as your aware, but yesterday a captain and lieutenant came to take that shinigami back with them to Soul Society, Karin lost her powers because the captain performed senka on her. However a certain shinigami shopkeeper said Karin could get them back, all she had to do was complete her training, to do that she had to get her reiryoku back, how she was supposed to do that I don't know but after that he cut her chain of fate and threw her into a hole. The hollowfication process has somehow sped up to a time limit of three days and if she doesn't get her powers back before then, she'll turn into a hollow" Ichigo said and finally finished his explanation.

"Ok then, so Karin wanted to get her strength back so she could save the shinigami," Merodī said earning a nod from Ichigo "all right, but you'll have to somehow guide her to a place where I can easily find her, it would almost be impossible to find her amongst the billions of hollows that wander throughout these lands"

"That's fine, I'll just lead her to the place where we met Harribel for the first time, you remember that don't you" Ichigo said.

"Yeah, I do" Merodī said.

"Alright then" Ichigo said as he got up to leave but found himself stopped by Merodī kissing him on the lips, which he sank right into.

"Bye, don't take too long to say hello again" Merodī said as she pulled away.

"Yeah, I won't" Ichigo said before he tore open a garganta and left Merodī standing there.

"Who was that?" someone said making Merodī jump a little before relaxing to turn around and see it was Harribel standing there. "I must say you were quiet intimate with him by hollow standards, not many hollows interact with each other on that level and even then it's only the arrancar"

"No one else in Hueco Mundo does this Harribel-san" Merodī said. "It was the human from about a year ago, nothing to worry about"

Harribel narrowed her eyes a little before turning to head back to Los Noches "Very well, make sure it doesn't come to the point he will harm Apache, Sung-sun, or Mila rose in the upcoming war if you wish for him to live, if he does not hurt me I will not hurt him" Harribel finished speaking and disappeared with the buzzing noise of a sonido.

* * *

(Urahara Shouten not long after Ichigo left)

"Arisawa-san would you mind coming over here for a moment" Urahara said from behind where Tatsuki was sitting watching the chain on Karin's chest eat itself away. It was painful to watch to say the least. Every time it started eating itself Karin looked to be in serious pain and she could do nothing but writhe on the ground until it went to sleep again.

"…Y…yeah ok coming" Tatsuki said finding it hard o look away from Karin. Getting up and turning to look at Urahara she also noticed the cat next to him sitting there expectantly. "What do you want Urahara?" Tatsuki said crossing her arms at seeing Urahara's attitude.

"Orihime and Chad would without a doubt want to help Karin rescue Kuchiki-san and we have about a month to train them and Karin as well as yourself if you can that is, so what I'm going to ask you to do Arisawa-san is to train Chad and Orihime-chan" Urahara said the last part a bit more enthusiastically than the rest causing Tatsuki's eye to twitch.

"_He's a pervert, don't kill him Tatsuki don't kill him, if you do you might go to jail and be reprimanded by your parents"_ Tatsuki thought.

"_What's she thinking about_" Urahara thought.

"Yeah, I'll teach them because their power is the same type as mine, you'd just screw it up" Tatsuki said trying to sound triumphant at the last part.

"Why do you have to be so mean?" Urahara began to fake cry behind his fan before Tatsuki threw a punch at him causing him to fly into one of the many mountains in the underground training room.

"Shut up, you're acting like Ichigo's Dad" Tatsuki yelled.

"_Hmm, I like the kid already"_ Yoruichi thought.


	13. Chapter 13

Merodī hummed to herself as she skipped down the halls of Los Noches oblivious to the fact that Grimmjow and Noitora were fighting again just to the side in the sand, under the fake sky that the dome of the giant fort had plastered like paint all over it's surface. Kido…a marvelous thing it was to provide such a sky, it almost felt like the living worlds sun was bearing down upon her except it was without the brilliant shine or warmth that the natural sun would provide. Merodī missed the sun that she would feel in those times that she was in the world of the living.

"Now where might have you been these past few days?" Aizen said as he rounded the corner in front of her to prevent her from advancing any further. There was a calm look on his face accompanied by the kind smile that he always wore in front of any of his shinigami subordinates.

"Out and about, you know the usual, these walls feel constricting to me and I like to go explore" Merodī explained with an innocent look on her face.

"Very well then carry on" Aizen replied accepting her answer, she was an adventurous subordinate after all and didn't tend to leave any trails so he would believe her…for now. Merodī did always shy away from Aizen, Gin and Tosen, the answer? There didn't appear to be one leaving the fact that she must just be naturally wary around shinigami like hollows were supposed to be, but she was one of the espada there was no need to be shy, there was a need to show strength, but then again there were always the deceptive just like himself.

Aizen shifted to the side and continued to pass by Merodī leaving her to her own thoughts once again. "_He must suspect something, hmm maybe not yet but there is something there, I'll leave it for now and see if progresses"_ Merodī thought before dropping the subject and continuing on with her stroll through Los Noches to possibly visit Harribel and her fraccion, it got rather boring being just by herself.

* * *

(Warehouse training ground a day later)

"_Uhh, this is such a pain"_ Ichigo thought as he stood in front of Orihime and Chad. He was about to teach them how to use their fullbring when he decided that he would think of how each of their personalities would come into play, and this is what he came up with.

Orihmie: "Oh this is so cool, so can I turn into a robot and fire lasers from my eyes and stuff and beat up lots of bad guys? Can I use those little fairies again can I? Can I? Ooooo…what else can I do, could you show me? Maybe I should bring some of my red-bean paste wasabi and honey noodles for us to eat during the break that always fills me up"

Chad: "…"

"_Yeah Chad's tolerable but I don't know about Orihime…oh well I haven't tried yet I may be wrong" _Ichigo thought. "Alright first of all to start off we are going to figure out what emotion you felt when you first activated your fullbring, Chad you first"

"Pride in the fact that my abuelo taught me how to use my arms to protect people rather than fight them all the time…I felt something" Chad said all in monotone voice, while moving his left arm over to his rights wrist, possibly where he felt the sensation.

"_This might be pretty easy_" Ichigo thought. "Alright then" Ichigo said pausing a bit "now pull on it, not your arm but that feeling you got when you thought of your pride in the arms that your abuelo showed you how to use."

Chad did as Ichigo told him to and his left arm was coated in a red and black armor like substance that closely resembled Ichigo's own armor. Chad then swung it forward testing it out unprepared for when he unknowingly used it causing a massive hole to be blown through the wall right next to the sleeping quarters.

"Hey watch it there Chad" Ichigo yelled gripping his head looking wide eyed at the massive hole in the wall "you almost destroyed the living space!"

"I thought you said it was protected by a barrier you set up" Chad said tonelessly making Ichigo blanche at the statement.

"Yeah but it has it's limits and I suck at barriers" Ichigo all but screamed at Chad before sighing to himself and hearing Chad mutter a word of apology to him "all right Orihime your turn" Ichigo said turning to her.

"Y-y-yes Kurosaki-kun" Orihime said blushing a little before concentrating on her power to try and bring it out with a frown that looked more like a cute pout. Moments later little fairy like creatures burst out from the hairclips that were on the sides of Orihimes head. Each one of them had their own distinct personalities, however the most noticeable was the one that kept yelling at Orihime.

"Good," Ichigo said happy with the results so far "now that you know how to activate your power we are going to focus on increasing your speed so you can keep up with the shinigami's speed technique with one of our own, how will you expect to beat some of the higher level shinigami if you can't even keep up with them"

"Kurosaki-kun will save us won't you?" Orihime said with an innocent yet hopeful look on her face.

"I will try" Ichigo said "but I won't be able to all the time" Ichigo continued making Orihime's face drop a little losing the smile she had gained when Ichigo said he would try. "That's why I'm teaching and training you to use your powers" Ichigo said trying to encourage Orihime a bit. "Now to be able to use this technique I'll show you something first that may assist you in using this ability," Ichigo said grabbing a glass of water that he had left on a table behind him "to use this ability you have to understand how your own power works, your power works by drawing out the 'soul' of something, to perform the task you require of it although this ability does have its limits. For example" Ichigo said holding the glass up to head height. All of a sudden the water inside the glass began to glow a slight fluorescent green colour and it looked to be bubbling as though it were beginning to boil. After a few moments the water leapt into the air and stayed floating there before it's shape began to contort into something that resembled a dragon.

"Ohhh, very good Kurosaki-kun, ahh, how long would it take for us to learn this?" Orihime asked worried that she would fall behind everyone else.

"About two months normally," a voice sounded out from behind Orihime whom just turned to find Tatsuki standing there "well that's how long it took me to learn it anyway" Tatsuki finished scratching the back of her head sheepishly

"Ahh Tatsuki-chan will be joining us after all" Orihime said saying it more like a question than a statement.

"You've already begun training them?" Ichigo asked Tatsuki who just shook her head in response.

"No I've just explained the basics of hollows, shinigami, Quincy and fullbringers to them, I haven't attempted to bring out their power or teach them lightbringer yet" Tatsuki responded. "I thought it be best to leave you to that, after all you do have the most experience in this area"

"And here I thought you'd have come to tell me when I'm doing something wrong" Ichigo said giving a small smirk, "anyway, are you here to help?"

"Yeah, I'll take Orihime you take Chad and we'll meet back together to see how we've all progressed at the end of the day" Tatsuki said motioning for Orihime to follow her as she went out the main entrance to leave to go to another location to train.

"Sure" Ichigo called after Tatsuki. "Alright Chad, on with the training"

* * *

(Two days later)

It was Karin's third day in the pit and she still hadn't gotten anywhere with turning into a shinigami and now she wanted to know just how was she going to get to talk to her zanpakuto if she didn't even know how to look at it. So for the past couple of hours she had been feverishly bee trying to figure out how she was going to do it.

"Ya hungry yet?" a red haired boy named Jinta asked from the top of the pit looking down on Karin's seated form "'Cause it's ok if your hungry…well not really I guess, it just means your closer to becoming a hollow now"

"Oh shut up I'm way beter than you so I won't give in to this, I just don't know how to access my zanpakuto is all" Karin shouted back at Jinta. He was really annoying at the moment in Karin's mind, he kept on asking every few hours whether or not Karin had grown hungry at all and in truth she was, she just didn't want to show her fears of becoming a hollow.

"Hey Jinta shut up will you" a familiar voice could be heard as the sound of footsteps could be heard approaching the pit. "How are you holding up down there 'cause from the looks of it you haven't got long to go" Ichigo said as his face appeared over the edge of the pit.

"What do you mean? My chain is still really long" Karin said confusedly looking up at her brother but her question went answered by Jinta rather than Ichigo.

"'Cause the last one is always the biggest" Jinta said referring to all the times the chain began to eat itself.

"Huh?" Karin said before all of a sudden the chain in her chest became alive and every single link began eating itself and she began screaming in agony. "Take it off" she screamed before all the pain suddenly vanished and she was somewhere else, the bindings were gone and there was no chain in her chest dangling out and eating itself. The world around her was filled with the sound of running water and all she could see around her was water flowing as though she were in the middle of the ocean, and the sky was dark with only one thing illuminating it in the entire world she stood in. "Where am I?" Karin asked herself.

"Where you are does not matter at the moment," a feminine voice sounded from behind Karin "what matters right now is do you know my name, it's a tricky one and this name does not necessarily represent you, although not far from it, it represents what you see in your soul, so what do you see?"

"Are you my zanpakuto?" Karin asked whirling her head around to see a beautiful woman dressed in a blue kimono.

"While that is true you have not answered my question, what do you see here?" the woman said gesturing to the world around them, "Because if you know what you see you will be able to know my name and find me"

"Dark sky illuminated by the moon and an endless ocean" Karin whispered to herself trying to figure out what the woman in front of her was trying to get her to find out. It was there in the in the back of her mind waiting to come forth.

"Hurry, you do not have much time," the woman said in front of Karin "the world around you is fading as you turn into a hollow"

_"There it is"_ Karin thought as her mind reached out to the name she could not miss "Akarui umi no tsuki" Karin said and the woman in front of here smiled as her form dissolved into two identical zanpakuto. Karin reached out for the hilts of both and drew them from their sheaths as the darkness around her threatened to break into a never-ending white void. An explosion of power could be felt through her entire being although it did not match up to what she had before Byakuya had sealed her powers it felt good.

* * *

"Mmm, so Kurosaki-san you don't want us to kill her for you if she becomes a hollow?" the Urahara asked warily because he did not know just to what lengths he had gone to make sure his sister was safe even if she did become a hollow.

"No, I don't want you to kill her" Ichigo said in return "and that's final…oh no need to worry, she found her zanpakuto after all"

"How do you know that?" Urahara asked once again curious as to how he would be able to sense such a thing.

"Her reiryoku has changed a bit, haven't you noticed" Ichigo said back to Urahara.

Urahara didn't respond but rather he tried to feel the difference Ichigo was talking about, which he did find after a few moments of poking and prodding into the many reiryoku signatures that permeated the air. "_So there is a difference when a shinigami aquires their zanpakuto, who would've guessed, not many people spend their time assessing minor changes in reiryoku because it isn't usually a big deal like now but you certainly seem a lot smarter when you can" _Urahara thought remembering when he was still the captain of the twelfth division and he was called a genius simply because he knew how to analyse reishi signatures in great depth. Sure that wasn't the only thing he did but it was amazing how small the things could be, "_Ichigo himself might turn out quite the genius"_

Suddenly an explosion occurred and both of the two people standing at the rim of the pit looked downward to see that in Karin's discovery of her zanpakuto her sudden outburst of reishi had snapped the bindings holding her in place with a rather excessive amount of force, and for some reason she was sitting slumped over in a pool of water. There next to Karin who was now passed out on the ground likely due to the fact of the lost reiryoku lay two zanpakuto their guards just poking above the surface of the water.

"Well this is interesting, if I would be allowed to voice my thoughts I would think that the young miss Kurosaki-san has a water based zanpakuto" Urahara observed.

"Well gee, thanks captain obvious" Ichigo replied inn mock tone, "now I'm getting her out so she can rest in a bed until she wakes up, then you begin her training"


	14. Chapter 14

Sorry about not getting the chapter up sooner. I was kinda reading all the fics that I liked and had been updated recently. Also a little family holiday got in the way as well and the internet where I was was shit soooo I kinda postponed updating until I had better access. I hope to get the next few chapter out soon, I've already begun on the next chapter so just wait a moment.

* * *

Karin woke up to see her surroundings to be an endless dark sky, not a cloud in sight but the moon that illuminated the darkness of the world she was in. Karin also felt wet, very wet and as though she were drifting. Closing her eyes once again Karin began to try and fall asleep again only to feel herself bump into something. Karin opened her eyes once again to see the very same woman that had told Karin to find her standing to Karin's right with her foot nudged into Karin's arm preventing the tides of Karin's ocean from moving her any further.

"I see you've finally woken up," the woman said "I presume you know who I am?" the woman questioned. Looking down at Karin as she continued to float.

"Akarui umi no tsuki" Karin said remembering the name that she had called out bringing a small smile to the woman's face.

"Yes, that is it, but you may call me a shortened version while we are in here, outside you must call me by my full name to release me." the woman said to Karin before looking up into the sky, more specifically the moon that shone brightly as though there were a slight disturbance in it's appearance. "It appears our time is up, try to get your brother to teach you a few things as well, I have a feeling that that shopkeeper will only be giving you experience training, which is good in all but you must learn some other techniques and I believe that your brother will be a great source for such things. Good bye for now and I hope you come to meet me again under less dire circumstances that do not involve rescuing any friends"

Karin suddenly felt a slight pulling sensation as she exited from her inner world and began to regain her bearings with her eyes still closed. She felt like crap, note to self, never allow a crazy shopkeeper throw you into a pit with your hands tied behind your back with a chain dangling out of your chest.

"Well, hello there miss, I trust your nap was most comforting" a very familiar voice of a shopkeeper sounded. "Up you get now, we must train if you are to get strong enough to survive in Soul Society" Urahara said. The sound of a door could be heard sliding opened and the footsteps of the man disappearing.

Karin groggily opened her eyes and stretched a bit before standing up to her full height and let out a deep breath. Karin then went out the door that was previously opened by Urahara and closed it behind her, going off to find the training area that she had first entered to regain her shinigami powers. It didn't take long to find as Karin had soon enough entered the small hole in the back off the Shoten covered by a trap door and had climbed down the exceedingly long ladder into the so called basement.

Urahara was standing in the middle of an opening waiting for Karin to approach him, which she did so warily, wondering as to whether or not he would decide to play some more tricks on her. She was happy to see that he was not and was actually serious about training her.

"Well now that you're here I believe that we can begin" Urahara stated holding his cane in his right hand leaning it against the ground with his left hand resting on his right. "First things first" Urahara said before raising his cane and jabbing Karin in the forehead with the flaming skull that rested on the bottom of the cane. Immediately Karin's body burst from her body.

"Hey, hey, a little more warning next time would be appreciated" Karin said slightly annoyed, as she rubbed the spot on her forehead where the cane had hit her. After that Karin immediately looked to her left hip where she found two identical zanpakuto, both of which she drew to get into a ready stance to fight Urahara. Urahara complied by he himself drawing a sword from within the cane he now held to his side. Something felt slightly off about the cane sword, however Karin dismissed it and left it as, she would just assume anything the crazy shopkeeper threw at her would be potentially dangerous or even lethal.

"Well now where would be the fun in life without a little surprise" Urahara responded to Karin. "Step three, take my hat off my head" Urahara said in a relaxed tone his hat overshadowing his eyes as he became slightly more serious than he was before.

"Easy" Karin said before lunging forwards both swords in her hands reared back behind her head ready to strike down. Karin neared her target and struck Urahara's blade and began pushing as hard as she could against it however it didn't budge making Karin become a little frustrated that her strongest swing hadn't even made the man budge an inch and he was only using one arm. "I stand corrected" Karin ground out from her teeth still pushing against Urahara's blade.

"That you are" Urahara said before he swung his sword arm forwards making Karin fly backwards and stumble on her feet a little before righting herself. "Remember you will not be fighting low-level hollows like you have these past few weeks, you will be fighting fully fledged shinigami. Most of them are weaker than you are, but do not let that build up your hopes, for that is where the real challenge lies, the last three positions of power in a squad." Urahara rushed at Karin at what seemed a rather fast past and struck out to Karin's side. Karin then held up her blades to her side but was then surprised when Urahara shifted his centre of gravity around and kicked her undefended side making Karin hurtle backwards even further than before. "Third seat, lieutenant, and captain, the gaps in power between these seated positions are the greatest and most difficult to overcome, you will not only find this because of the ridiculous amount of reiastu one must have but the gender in which you are. I am sad to say this Kurosaki-san but even though you are a strong young girl, men are naturally stronger than women, so you will have to possibly find a different way to overcome them. Of course though you may also get physically strong enough to push a few away and you should strive to get stronger but you should make up for the rest in another area. Just like a certain woman I know, she trained to be the fastest person in all of Soul Society once upon a time. I'm almost certain she still is, but she made up for her weaknesses by getting faster and perfecting her style and techniques, both of which you must do to survive."

"Is that so," Karin paused for a moment standing up from where she landed "I guess then you'll have to teach me how to become faster, Ichi-nii mentioned something about a high-speed movement technique that I should be able to learn from you…or was it Tatsuki" Karin said causing Urahara's face to turn into one of curiousness.

_"Just how much does Ichigo know about shinigami…I wonder does he know about his father and mother…no not his mother, he wouldn't know unless somebody told him so"_ Urahara thought to himself as Karin readied herself once again.

"Heavens weep, Oceans rage Akarui umi no tsuki" Karin shouted and her swords blade changed colour from their usual silver to a dark wavy blue, the hilt was now silver instead of gold covered in a wavy purple wrapping and the guard was now one that looked like the leviathan coiled around the bottom of the blade. Karin then instinctually got into a side stance, her left facing Urahara. Karin brought her left blade far out to the right and water began to condense into a ball on the base of her blade. Karin swung the blade forward and the water traveled up it at high speeds and when the tip of the blade was pointing at Urahara the ball exploded into a giant wave of water that shot straight at Urahara.

"Awaken Benehime" Urahara called out as the water approached and set up a blood mist shield in front of him. The wave of water crashed into the shield and dispersed around it barely putting any strain on the shield. "Well I must say I'm impressed Kurosaki-san, that was a rather large move you made there, although…it seems to put have a lot of stress on you" Urahara said once his shield was down looking over to where Karin stood panting, only being able to stand up thanks to the support of the two resealed zanpakuto she was leaning against. "A tip for that move of yours if your willing to take it, the water had too large of a spread so it had very little power behind it, try concentrating it next time and possibly little less reiryoku in case it's a battle of endurance. Now enough talk let's get back to fighting, a sealed zanpakuto for you though, at least until your reiastu and reiryoku levels are back to that of a fourth seat. And as for your high speed movement technique for now, a basic shunpo will do, all you have to do is gather reiryoku in your feet and think of here you want to go before releasing the built up energy by ejecting it rapidly in a short burst"

Karin nodded to Urahara before once again charging at Urahara both swords ready at her sides. Testing out the premise behind the shunpo Urahara told her Karin built up reiryoku in her feet and released it. Karin suddenly found herself flying through the air at extreme speeds and wound up just to the side of Urahara who looked slightly impressed that Karin picked it up, it was sloppy, but it was a shunpo. Not expecting the results of how fast the shunpo was Karin was slightly disoriented and missed the kick Urahara shot out at her catching her in the shoulder, causing her to tumble a bit before stopping.

"How are my eyes supposed to keep up with that?" Karin asked obviously not that fazed by the kick she got from Urahara "most of it was a blur."

Urahara shrugged his shoulders and said "You'll get used to it, your eyes will adapt and pretty soon everything will appear to go in slow motion when you concentrate on going fast, but while you do that your reflexes will also have to catch up so you don't get your head cut off, now again"

* * *

Karin and Urahara continued to fight for Karin's training over the next ten days, while Ichigo and Tatsuki took care of Chad and Orihime teaching them how to use their fullbring and hopefully bringing out some of it's maximum potential. Both groups progressed far, given that the right teacher was given to the respective students.

Right now they all stood in front of a rectangular 'gate' that seemed to be constructed by discarded newspapers that were stacked upon each other to make it look like it was something that was merely improvised on the spot and that in fact it didn't really take ten days to set up the gate and all one would need to do to access the spirit realm was to make a 'gate' out of discarded newspapers and have sufficient spiritual energy.

"Hello everyone and I wish you all good luck on your trip to soul society, Yoruichi can explain and answer your questions on the go so no need to ask me anything now" Urahara said.

"Hey Urahara you lazy bum why do I have to do it?" Yoruichi growled in her masculine cat voice only to be ignored by Urahara as he pressed on with the matter of how they were getting to the Soul Society.

"This here is a special gate" Urahara said tapping the gate they all stood before them "theat allows humans to travel to the spirit realm without exiting their bodies…I made it myself, pretty impressive eh" Urahara said grinning to himself stupidly. Not getting the response he wanted Urahara sighed and continued "Now you only have four minutes to cross through the dangai lest you be trapped there forever, normally that is not enough time to cross through, however no one really ever runs through the dangai sooooo… good luck, off you go now. Tessai-san" Urahara called out to his assistant as he went to stand nearby the gate.

"Hey what kind of explanation was that," Karin shouted at Urahara "you just said there's a extremely high chance we could die" Karin paused noticing that Urahara wasn't even listening to her "hey listen to me"

"Yes boss, I'm ready" Tessai responded standing on the opposite side of the gate placing his hands on it beginning to feed reiatsu into it.

In a moment the gate opened and Yoruichi began to move near it. "Come on let's go, we'll make it if you stay up with me, no slowing down, this is a four minute sprint" Yoruichi said jumping through the gate closely followed by the others as they each jumped through the gate together to leave for Soul Society"

Urahara looked at the gate as the last person jumped through the gate "…Good luck, you'll need it"


	15. Chapter 15

Ichigo, Karin and the rest of the gang were currently heading through the precipice world or more commonly known as the dangai. The purple sludge that adorned the walls was continuously flowing downwards as they ran and covered the path behind them making it impossible to turn back now.

"What the hell is this stuff?" Karin roared trying to keep up with her brother who was easily leading the pack. His strength must rely on speed the most if he were able to run this fast so hard and long.

"It's the Kōryū," Yoruichi shouted so that all of the others could hear "don't touch it, if you do you'll never escape and you'll be sucked in to be lost for all eternity. It's attracted to your reiatsu so don't use any."

"Forget about the Kōryū, what the hell is that!" Uryuu shouted looking over his shoulder to see a glowing light that seemed to be approaching them fast.

"Shit! Run faster! That's the cleaner; it'll do the same thing as the Kōryū only its ten times more aggressive." Yoruichi shouted as he began to run faster getting ahead of everyone but Ichigo who just looked back over his shoulder seeing Uryuu starting to fall behind with the ridiculous cape he wore only centimetres away from being swallowed by the Kōryū, so much for not worrying about it.

In a few sparks of green Ichigo was out the front with Uryuu on his shoulder who seemed to be a little confused and stunned as to how he got where he was, one moment he was behind everyone the next Ichigo was moving towards him and ramming his shoulder into his gut to be cushioned by Uryuu's reiatsu only having just seen Ichigo in time to prevent himself from vomiting organs. An experience he did not quite want or need to have.

"What was that for Kurosaki!" Uryuu roared oblivious as to just how close he was to being sucked into the purple sludge.

"I'm saving your ass Quincy." Ichigo replied indignantly, "Would you rather I left you to get swallowed by the Kōryū?"

Uryuu paused for a moment trying to formulate his words then spoke "No, but you could have killed yourself as well, I thought that reiatsu techniques weren't supposed to be used in the dangai." Uryuu finished with an almost triumphant grin at how sound his argument was, the part where Ichigo had saved him made him hold back realising that he would in fact be dead iif Ichigo hadn't done what he had.

It was then that Yoruichi spoke up, "He's right Ichigo, no reiatsu based techniques in the dangai," he said causing Uryuu's grin to widen a smidge, "however, I didn't sense any reiatsu coming from that technique so he should be fine." Yoruichi scowled a little when he finished, what high-speed technique didn't use reiatsu? At that point Uryuu's grin fell in defeat. "Alright there's the exit everyone, make a last second sprint that cleaner's gaining on us."

Everyone nodding in response doubled their speed if they could, it was mainly only the other fullbringers though that could boost their speed without risk getting caught in the Kōryū. Karin tried her best to speed up but was finding herself at her speed limit and couldn't go any faster. At this Tatsuki pulled up beside Karin and pulled her over her shoulder getting a slight 'oomph' in reply as Karins stomach landed on Tatsuki's shoulder.

Seeing no problems with anyone currently Yoruichi decided not to get involved with helping them and revealing his true self to them. So he just simply ran ahead of Ichigo who was a little surprised that the cat was holding back so much, was it really a cat or a person disguised as a cat? He was sure to find out eventually. "Ahh screw it, hey Yoruichi, you a girl or a guy? Can't really tell because of the really masculine voice, I'm pretty sure most of us think you're a guy at this point in time."

"You're asking a question like that right now!?" Yoruichi shouted looking at Ichigo.

"Well yeah, we're exiting the dangai…now." Ichigo said jumping out the exit and letting go of Uryuu to freefall to the ground while he just landed on his two feet. Hearing a thump Ichigo turned around to see Uryuu groaning and holding onto his now sore back.

"You're an asshole you know that Kurosaki." Uryuu groaned standing up shakily.

"I was gonna drop you when we got to ground level anyway so why wait when I could do it then, plus you tried to kill Karin with the hollow bait challenge, a bit of payback will suffice." Ichigo said with a shrug of his shoulders while looking around not bothering to check any further with Uryuu's injuries. He'd be fine…or so Ichigo hoped.

"Ishida kun," Orihime shouted to Uryuu rushing over to him to check if he was alright from his fall, "if you weren't confident about landing on your own two feet you could have asked Kurosaki kun to help you down first before he let go of you." At this Uryuu couldn't help but wonder how far Orihime's kindness would go. To believe that Ichigo had good intentions when he was dropped was too far, at least by his standards anyway.

"He did that on purpose!" Uryuu almost shouted but was silenced by a rather irritated looking cat on the ground.

"I see you love to bicker and chat, but didn't you come here to save someone?" Yoruichi said causing a thought to pass through everyone's head 'why did the cat care so much'.

Bringing to light another subject that wasn't answered before Ichigo spoke up, "Oh yeah you didn't answer my question when we exited the dangai."

"You'll find out soon enough, I'mpretty sure the others didn't hear the question so it'll be a surprise for them, their expressions will amuse me a bit." Yoruichi chuckled giving Ichigo hint to the fact that Yoruchi was actually a woman.

Breaking them from their conversation Chad spoke up which immediately caught the attention from everyone since they almost never heard Chad talk in full sentences without leaving something out. "Where is everyone?" At that most sighed at the rather short speech but looked around confirming his words. There was no one to be seen.

"That's because we are now labeled as ryoka, and ryoka are supposed to be the main cause of disaster among the soul society. They just probably don't want to get involved with us." Yoruichi answered Chad's question.

"Oh well we can't wait forever," Karin said having had her fair share of a look around, "that big complex over there is the place we're going right?" not bothering to receive an answer from anyone she continued, "so lets go." With that done and said Karin started walking towards the seireitei, everyone but Yourichi in tow.

"Wait you idiots, what kind of person knocks on the front door and says we're breaking in?" Yoruichi shouted in slight horror at how they were acting.

"We do obviously." Ichigo said casually in response waving a hand behind him to the panicking cat. "Besides it's not like they don't already know about us, or is it that the only shinigami that were any good at their jobs were kicked out of office and now reside in the world of the living, that's just a guess by the way, 'cause getaboshi must have been at least at captain level. He seemed pretty intelligent if not extremely childish at times. If that's how all these shinigami are then we have something to worry about, if not I think we'll be fine besides the lowest level of power among us is at about twelfth seat give or take a few."

"Do you think this is a game?" Yoruichi said holding in her anger.

"At the moment," Ichigo said raising a hand to his chin to think for a moment before nodding, "yeah pretty much, at least untill we come across some lieutenant level or higher ranking guys I think we'll be fine, oh and look where we are now, at the border of the seireitei and with no one in sight." Ichigo said noting the fact that during their little conversation that they had reached the seireitei border.

"Seems safe enough to me." Karin said shrugging to herself stepping forward only to be yanked by the collar of her shihakusho suddenly as a giant wall appeared out of thin air and a giant beast like man came down with it. "Phew, close one," Karin said turning around to find her savior being Tatsuki, "thanks."

"No problem, just be a little more observant." Tatsuki said holding her index finger and thumb close to each other for emphasis.

"Alright, Karin your up." Ichigo pointed his finger at the massive man before them making most of the others present bug their eyes out at him, which he noticed. "What?" Ichigo said looking around himself confused at their expressions, "she'll be fine, she did learn shunpo after all and how to do some moves with her zanpakuto, I don't see anything to worry about."

It was then that the mighty…creature or man, whatever he was began to speak. "I am Jidanbo the gatekeeper of the hakudo gate," the man stated "it has been a very long time since anyone has tried to break into the seireitei, when they did they never succeeded."

"Ichigo! He's huge how am I supposed to defeat him!" Karin yelled terrified of the huge man that sttod before her.

"Imagine getaboshi," Ichigo said getting Karin to nod not quite understanding where this was going at the moment "now imagine a super weak but really big version of him and pretend to cut him up." Ichigo said obviously not showing any kind of fondness for the shopkeeper that helped them.

"Yeah, maybe." Karin said agreeing to Ichigo, it couldn't be as bad as Urahara was with her training, could it?

Stepping forward Karin drew her blades prompting Jidanbo to do the same.

"I see you have manners, one on one duels is how battling in the seireitei works after all, just make sure the rest of your friends don't interfere and all will go well." Jidanbo said to Karin.

As soon as Jidanbo said that he swung his right arm overhead bringing his axe down on top of Karin who just nimbly dodged to the left of the blade and out of Jidanbo's view, the blade covering her from his sight. As soon as the blade was lodging itself into the ground a cloud of dust rose with the wind pressure that was generated from the swing of the axe and Karin moved forward and cut through the hilt of the axe effectively dislodging the blade from it so Jidanbo could no longer swing the full weapon. He would have to hold the blade if that happened.

"See," Jidanbo said looking up at the others not having seen Karin slip out of his sight or even noticing the absence of her blood, "no one in the three hundred years I have been guarding this gate has ever passed through."

Attempting to raise his axe Jidanbo somehow felt the axe was lighter than before so as fast as his mind could be he looked over to where the blade of his axe should be but instead saw the clean cut where Karin had sliced through.

"Took you long enough to figure out your axe was broken." Karins voice came from in front of Jidanbo. She was currently sitting lazily on top of the giant axe, one of her blades sheathed using the arm that was supposed to hold it to support herself as she leant back on it, the other pointing down to the ground in her left hand.

"What did you do!?" Jidanbo cried putting his left arm into his modified shihakusho slowly pulling out another blade. "You broke my axe! Why would you do that!?"

"You were trying to kill me with it," Karin said a little confused as to how worked up he was getting about an axe, "listen, how about you give up and you let us through?"

"No I can't do that! You haven't defeated me yet, I still have another axe! Lets see if you can survive the ten buffalo-red strikes festival!" Jidanbo said with a mighty roar shattering the armor that covered his left arm pulling it back getting ready to strike at Karin again who just sighed.

"This is easier than I expected it to be, you're way slower than Urahara san you know that right?" Karin said not getting a reply before she used shunpo to appear beside his head seeing Jidanbos eyes widen a little before she slammed the hilt of her zanpakuto into his temple causing him to immediately fall unconscious. "Well that was fun. How are we going to get through the gate now?"

"The way that we were going to go all along." Yoruichi said trying to hide her surprise at just how easily an eleven-year-old child managed to defeat Jidanbo, a man of collosal size and strength. Sure she had speed on her side but still, to have enough power to make him fall unconscious with one blow, it had to be a reiatsu-enhanced blow. Yoruichi should have been monitoring Karin for something like that, perhaps she had a hidden talent for manipulating reiatsu. It wouldn't be surprising considering what her mother was. "Come on we'll stay the night here in this district of the Rukongai, I have to ask the elder where the person might be."

"Who exactly is this person we are looking for Yoruichi san?" Uryuu said pushing his glasses up, the group already following Yoruichi without question for some reason as she walked along through the line of houses that were on either side of them.

"We are looking for a person named Kukaku." Yoruichi said giving the shortest answer possible.

Realising that they weren't really going to get much more out of Yoruichi and that she was more the type of giving surprises meaning the gender didn't specifically the name. Oh how confusing and stressful the cat liked to be!


	16. Chapter 16

Walking along a dirt road the group of teens that were bent on invading the seireitei were all just trying to figure out where they were headed exactly. Why were they following a cat? What were they doing going so far away from the seireitei walls? Good question. It was supposed to lead them to a person who would help them enter the seireitei but where was this person? At this point in time a few people like Ichigo were just thinking maybe they should turn back and attempt to lift the damn gate themselves.

"Where is it?" Ichigo moaned beginning to drag his feet along the ground for emphasis. The others just looked at him as though there was something wrong with him, he'd been keeping up fine the whole way, did he just prefer to barge in and take a straight line to where Rukia was than take he longer path that might possibly be easier than the other? It was possible but they couldn't care for him anymore even though they too were beginning to wonder if they would ever reach the destination.

"Other than Ichigo beginning to act a little out of character just to annoy us, where is this place again?" Tatsuki spoke up.

"I concur, where is this place Yoruichi san?" Uryuu pushed up his glasses as he always did when asking particular things.

"Not much longer now, you'll know when you see it anyway." Yoruichi said trodding ahead of everyone not even bothering to turn back her head towards the others to look them straight in the face further increasing some people's paranoia of thinking that they were being lied to. Hey, it was a cat, they were supposed to be sneaky.

"Is that it? Sure is damn ugly." Karin said, currently the only one in the group looking straight ahead other than Yoruichi. The others were all looking at the land around them noting how peaceful it seemed to be compared to some places they'd been before, there weren't many people there.

Everyone turned their heads when they heard Karin and saw one of the weirdest homes they'd ever seen. A relatively small normal looking building stood just behind two giant hands that came out of the ground. A rope was connected between the two supporting a red banner with the name of Kukaku Shiba in large black writing. The general appearance of the house in all was normal it was just the two giant hands that began to turn off two people in particular from even daring to enter the house and face the horrors that might be inside.

"Why yes," Yoruichi said slightly amused with the seemingly new decorations, "I believe it is, the hands are quite a clever design if I do say so myself." After that Yoruichi began walking towards the house as though it were the norm to come around people who would decorate their house in such a way.

_"I won't be seen going in there!"_ Ichigo and Uryuu simultaneously thought failing to notice the others in their group casually walking up to the house as though there were nothing wrong with the exception of Karin who seemed to be slowly backing away a slight look of horror on her face. She'd have no part in weirdo business…ok maybe she already was but still, what normal person has two giant hands supporting a giant banner with their name on it outside their house.

Orihime, Chad and Tatsuki noticed that the others weren't in step next to them and turned around to see them where they were and the expressions on their faces. A little hilarious really, this caused Tatsuki to have a slight smirk on her face knowing the minds of the two Kurosaki's a little better than the others did. Orihime was just oblivious as usual and smiled at them waving for them to come over, and so as a show of trying to hide their fears they courageously, in their opinion of course, walked towards the others and proceeded towards to the house.

"Stop there." Two voices sounded from the sides of the rather large group of humans and shinigami. Suddenly two figures popped up on top of the giant hands now either side of the group. "What business do you have here?" one of them continued to speak as they both dropped down from the hands to land in front of the group barring them from any further progress into the home.

"Uh, we're here to see Kukaku." Karin said to both of the men before her.

"A shinigami?" the one on the left said with a questioning look gaining a raised eyebrow from Karin. What did they mean?

"No to small and young looking, must be a child dressed as a soulreaper." The other said in return. Karin's eyebrow was twitching by then as she tried to hold in the little frustration that she gained as it was simply a small offence and there really was no use talking about it any further. She was about to retort to them in what she considered to be a polite manner however she as interrupted when the man looking at her saw the black cat now present by her side. "Yoruichi dono! I'm so sorry for not recognising you sooner, please, follow me."

"Who are they?" Karin asked slightly annoyed.

"Koganehiko and Shiroganehiko," Yoruichi answered walking past Karin and in step with the two men in front of her, "they faithfully and loyally serve Kukaku without question, if not only because Kukaku can be a slacker and is very kind to them, but because of past connections."

"Hm that was a rather elusive answer." Tatsuki commented looking down the stairs that began as soon as she entered the door. It was even stranger inside the house than the outside; she'd just have to wait to see what other mysteries were within the home of their hopeful helper. That chimney that stood out behind the house was very strange, the top was sealed off and it was rather large to be a chimney, but hey, it was a strange house, could just be its design. She'd also noticed Ichigo and Uryuu eyeing the tall structure before they entered the house, they might suspect something as well.

"We're very sorry Yoruichi dono for what happened outside." Koganehiko said as he led the group down the stairs.

"Oh no that's fine, we're just wondering if Kukaku was in, I need to have a chat with her about something." Yoruichi replied brushing off what Koganehiko said casually trying to say that they really caused no trouble at all.

"Yes Kukaku dono is here, just in through this door, wait a moment please." Koganehiko said motioning to the thin paper door that they were now next to in a hallway just ten or so metres from the bottom of the stairs that they had come down from the entrance.

"What are they all? Nobles?" Tatsuki muttered under her breath noting on how often the honorific 'dono' was used when their name was spoken. She just didn't know how right she was.

"I don't think a noble could have decorated their own home like this." Ichigo whispered to Tatsuki having heard what she said.

It was then that Koganehiko opened the door and the group saw across on the other side of the room a woman sitting on a cushion, a cloth wrapped loosely around her head covering a section of her black hair, it came down to about the middle of her back. She had a relatively large bust and wore a red singlet top and white cloth wrapped around her waist covering the front and back of her legs with a split on the right side to allow more freedom of movement. For some reason she had no right arm and it was replaced by a wooden prosthetic that had no movement in it, at least from what everyone could see at the moment. On her left was a tattoo that stretched from her shoulder to forearm.

"Kukaku's a woman?" was the question that burst out of Orihime's mouth but Uryuu, Karin's and surprisingly Chad's as well.

Yoruichi just turned to them and did the best impression of a smug grin she could do in cat form. "What you thought that Kukaku was a man just because I hadn't told you, don't make assumptions."

"What are you doing here Yoruichi? It's been a long time." Kukaku spoke up gaining the attention of the group as they all began to sit down in the room, the door closing behind them as they entered. "But before that, who're they?" Kukaku pointed to the small group of teens that surrounded her, "They don't exactly look all that great."

Some people in the room at that moment felt their eye twitching a little hearing the words coming out of Kukaku's mouth. "I'll tell you about them later." Yoruichi said subtly moving her head in the direction of the two Kurosaki's in the room so that she wouldn't be noticed. Seeing Kukaku's eyes slightly widen in comprehension Yoruichi continued, "I need a favor."

"What kind of favor," Kukaku said slightly suspicious of what Yoruichi had to ask, "is it dangerous?"

"Mmmmm, possibly." Yoruichi said not making direct eye contact with Kukaku. "It involves taking part in a rescue attempt to save the life of a shinigami by invading the seireitei…just the seven of us are going."

Inside Kukaku's mind she was doing flips, _"send a little girl and her brother into almost certain death or to not to, what to do, what to do."_ After a few moments Kukaku made up her mind "Alright I'm game, dangerous stuff can be really fun after all, so you're invading seireitei, what is this person to you guys anyway? She your girlfriend?" Kukaku said suddenly looking at Ichigo who snorted in response.

"Barely even know her, I'm just here to make sure Karin doesn't get herself killed." Ichigo replied not particularly liking the attitude of the said shinigami Rukia that they were supposed to save. Her kicks hurt apparently, well according to Karin anyway having received many about teasing Rukia's height being at least a century older than Karin and not being any taller.

"That so." Kukaku muttered under her breath. "Ganju!" Kukaku suddenly roared, "Get out here and meet our guests!"

"Yes nee san!" a high-pitched reply came from a frightened voice. Did the parents mix up the naming in the house and give all the females predominantly male names? "I'm right here." A now slightly deeper voice came through another door in the room.

"Come in." Kukaku spoke back prompting the person on the other side of the door to open the barrier that split the group and the people's vision of each other.

Sliding the door open Ichigo could only looked wide-eyed at the man before them while some of the others had a slightly surprised look to their faces. "Hello, my name is Ganju Shiba," Ganju bowed to the group not opening his eyes to see who they were, "it's nice to meet you." At this point Ganju came up from his bowing position and opened his eyes to look at his guests faces and was quite shocked to see the people he saw only yesterday.

"You!" both Karin and Ichigo shouted simultaneously.

"What are you doing here?!" Ganju replied in turn equally shocked that he would see the same shinigami he saw yesterday at his home.

Kukaku looked on bemusedly realising that they must of bumped into each other and was probably the reason Ganju was home late last night.

* * *

FLASH BACK

"I challenge you shinigami to a fight!" a rather large man said stepping off of the boar he called Bonnie. It didn't seem too happy about it either and bucked him off making him face plant on the dirt road. Quickly getting up trying to not make a fool of himself he only saw the bored expression of the little girl in front of him. "I said, I'm challenging you to a fight little girl!"

"No." Karin replied blankly not at all amused by the person in front of her, sure he called her a little girl but he really didn't seem like a big problem, she'd leave him for now and see what happens.

The man just charged with fists ready not expecting the girl to put up a good fight. He was mildly surprised however when another figure stepped into view blocking his path to the little girl. The most noticeable feature about the person in front of him was his bright orange hair. That was all he made out before a fist connected with his face and sent him tumbling down the street a good twenty or so metres.

"Ichi nii, you didn't need to do that. He seems pretty week as it is." Karin told her brother as he stood in front of her protectively preventing the man from coming any closer.

Ichigo scratched the back of his head sheepishly and sighed a little before turning around to face Karin. "Yeah I know, reflex." Ichigo said making an excuse. "Besides he hasn't told you why he wants to fight you yet, I'm pretty sure that he needs a good reason before picking to fight someone."

"That's just you Ichi nii." Karin drawled out watching the man behind Ichigo get up again thanks to the help of the four other men he was with.

"What was that for?! I was fighting the shinigami girl not you! So why'd you get in my way? Never mind that, why do you even like shinigami? They're evil bastards is what they are!" the man ground out through his teeth rather irritated that his fight was interrupted by the orange haired teen before him and also trying to hide the feeling of dread that was slowly welling up inside him. Maybe it wasn't the brightest of ideas to come into conflict with the teen before him.

"She's my sister." Ichigo gave his single answer making the man now not supported by his friends try to pull on an act and be tough in front of Ichigo desperately trying not to piss his pants in fear and run for it. Seriously this muscular orange haired delinquent looking teen was that little girls brother.

"Ahhh, boss man it's nine already we gotta go before big sis gets angry about us being late." One of the man's companions who had a giant clock strapped to his back. How he managed to read it was a mystery to the others as he shouldn't be able to see the clock face with the way he held it.

"Crap," the man said in turn putting his fingers and whistling loudly, taking his fingers out he yelled "Bonnie!" catching the attention of the female boar that was meandering along the streets of the Rukongai.

Not having gone far people could hear the thundering footsteps of Bonnie running through the streets. The thing about it though was that it was coming from behind both Ichigo and Karin who didn't even turn in time to see the boar fly through the air just skimming over the top of Ichigo's head.

_"Close one"_ Ichigo thought with his eye twitching in annoyance. _"What kind of person used boars as transport? Oh wait, that idiot does."_

"We'll meet again shinigami." The man said shaking his fist disappearing into the distance on the back of the boar after having first been run over by it and climbing on top.

FLASH BACK END

* * *

"Well then," Kukaku clapped her hands together attracting the attention of her fearful brother and his opposition, "since we're all acquainted now, let's show you guys how you'll be getting into the seireitei.

* * *

"There's no mistake about it Aizen Taicho, the elder Kurosaki was definitely there with them. What should we do?" Kaname Tosen asked in his ever-loyal voice to the Taicho of squad five while bowing.

"There is no need to bow Kaname." Aizen said holding his hand out waving to Kaname motioning him to stand even though the man couldn't see his hand. "Well then, that just means that the boy has learned to progress his powers far further than expected without even instructors to take care of his progress, there is a possibility that he has that power that the first substitute shinigami managed to obtain though. I wonder…his mother was also a Quincy, this could be quite interesting." Aien said to himself more than the man before him resting in the chair in the centre of a room looking at the large monitor that he used to spy on his enemies.

"Indeed Aizen Taicho. Would there perhaps be a course of action that we should take to prevent him from stunting our plans?" Kaname spoke in a slightly concerned voice trying to not voice his emotions too much.

"No," Aizen said surprising Kaname, "he is the perfect specimen. A being of all four stages of the human life. The average human has no spiritual pressure and walks around on their day-to-day life, but they are not, their mother was Quincy infected with hollow reiatsu that was stabilized by Isshin Shiba a shinigami and passed on to their eldest son when he was created through them. His soul adapted to the changes and used his shinigami nature to suppress it as well as his Quincy abilities working in tangent with it to prevent his body from self-destructing. This prevented his abilities of controlling his reiatsu well while he was a child and so he was a hollow magnet so to say, once he gained control it dwindled to mere wisps that leaked out continuously."

Listening to Aizen Tosen couldn't help but wonder whether or not he should just destroy the child and prevent them from successfully carrying out the assassination of the soul king. There was no way they would achieve the amount of power that the royal guard could muster in the short amount of time that they had left to obtain the hogyoku.

"…give him an ausuchi." Aizen finished almost whispering as though in realisation making Tosen's head snap towards him with a gob smacked expression on his face.

What did Aizen just say? Did he just say to give the boy an ausuchi? With his already prevalent level of undetermined power that could possibly bring down a captain he could be a monster like Zaraki and not even need his zanpakuto's name to defeat possibly the entire soul society excluding the Sou Taicho, his two pupils and the criminal Retsu Unohana or as she used to be called 'Yachiru'.

"Do not worry Kaname, it is a calculated guess that will probably bring him to only about Zaraki Taicho's peak strength level. It will not raise his reiatsu level until he gains his zanpakuto's name." Aizen spoke calmly to Tosen. "But knowing Keisuke's methods of helping people be abstract in it's own rights the girl may be able to obtain a similar power sooner or later, we'll just have to wait a little longer. The reiatsu fluctuations have already begun."


	17. Chapter 17

(Repentance cell)

Renji looked at the downtrodden shinigami in the cell he was also currently standing in, the repentance cell. Rukia Kuchiki, accused of transferring her powers to a human, punishment, execution via Sokyoku.

"What do you want Renji." Rukia said not even bothering to hide the venom in her voice.

Taken back a little it took a moment for Renji to reply. "Down by the gate it is said that a little girl no older than eleven wielding two zanpakutos defeated Jidanbo the gatekeeper. It seems as though you have a little rescue party coming after you."

That was all Renji said as he turned around and left not seeing the small tears well up in Rukia's eyes as she turned back around walking to the window and looked out of it wondering if the humans she met really were here to save her. She really wanted to be saved yet at the same time she didn't want the humans getting themselves killed just because they felt the need to rescue her. She could be so selfish at times.

* * *

(Kukaku's place)

Most of Ichigo's group just stared in horror at what Kukaku said would get them into the seireitei. She called it the flower crane cannon, but the others took it more as a death sentence guessing on how Kukaku really lost her arm. She said she was a fireworks expert and so one would assume that she had a rather nasty accident involving fireworks that caused her to lose her right arm. That left them with the answer of how the launch could go, it either went really well and they all landed in the seireitei safe and sound or something went horribly wrong and they all ended up dying from being inside the launch tube when the cannon was fired.

Not exactly something Ichigo was very impressed about. "Really, why do we have to use that stupid cannon?" Ichigo whined, "Isn't there another way in? I'd rather not lose an arm like miss fireworks expert over there." Ichigo said pointing at Kukaku who was marveling at how impressive her own creation was.

Gaining a tick mark on her forehead she drew back her right arm prosthetic using her reiatsu manipulation skills and punched forward into the back of Ichigo's head causing him to skid across the raised platform they were on and onto the grass below. Slowly but surely Ichigo got back up and made his way back onto the platform.

"Now as I was about to say to you all, this cannon will get you into the seireitei by air. However it's not that simple, the wall surrounding the seireitei is made of Seki seki stone, which is extremely rare. This special stone repels all reiatsu and creates a barrier around the seireitei and will incinerate anything that comes into contact with it. Mainly because right now we're all constructed of reishi." Kukaku explained the reason why they couldn't simply jump over the wall either like Ichigo would have if his instincts hadn't been nagging at him not to jump. "This," Kukaku said pulling out a small blue orb from behind her, suddenly appearing out of thin air, "is a reishūkaku." Kukaku stated gaining an amazed look from Orihime. "Ganju will demonstrate."

"Alright nee san." Ganju said as though he were about to show something extremely impressive to the others although people like Ichigo, Karin and Uryuu looked as about as interested as though they were watching a fly buzz by.

"By feeding your reiatsu into the reishūkaku it will form a shell structure around your body that will protect you from the impending forces of doom the barrier around the seireitei holds." Kukaku explained while tapping the blue shell of reishi that had formed around Ganju. "Hey are you listening?" Kukaku said annoyed that three of the people that were supposed to be receiving the demonstration weren't paying attention. "Yeah that's right I'm watching you." Kukaku proceeded to make them shake a little bit, Ichigo having already angered her once. Getting punched in the face by a prosthetic arm wasn't that nice. "Bah, whatever, just learn to pump your reiatsu into one of these in the underground training room and make sure it's stable so as to not blow up my wonderful house."

"Yes!" a voice shouted out behind the group making them all slightly pale before each individual one of them was picked up and thrown over the shoulders of Koganehiko and Shiroganehiko to be dragged to the training grounds.

* * *

(Indoors)

"Ichigo shouldn't you be practicing putting your reiryoku into one of these." Uryu said not quite understanding the fact that Ichigo already had some control over his reiatsu and that was why it wasn't coming out in torrents like it should have been had he still not have come to notice the spirit world.

"I told you already four eyes!" Ichigo roared at Uryuu as he lay on his back in a corner of the training hall so he didn't get in the way of the others. "I already know how to channel my-" Ichigo paused for a second noticing the pendant on Uryuu's wrist for the first time ever, he sure could be observant, "my reiatsu. Besides what's that on your wrist there? That pendant not the glove." Ichigo said sitting up.

"One of the sources of a Quincy's power, it helps us pull in reiryoku from our surroundings so we can strengthen ourselves." Uryuu said feeling smug, did Ichigo really not have anything else other than that odd speed technique and the ability to manipulate his reiatsu to a minor degree? "It can also be used to channel our attacks and shape them into projectiles that pierce and cut the enemy. Why do you ask? You jealous you don't have anything other than that odd speed technique, I can give you a demonstration if you like?"

Ichigo nodded his head brushing off the rude comments coming from Uryuu wondering why the pendants he and Uryuu had were so similar. Was his mother a Quincy? If so there must have been something terribly wrong on the night of her death for her to not have been able to use her powers. _"…My mother! She is here in soul society right now."_ Ichigo thought feeling stupid that he had not realized it earlier. _"She must have had a high reiryoku level if she was a Quincy! And that means she may have retained her memories because Grand fisher must have only been a regular hollow that could talk or at most an extremely weak adjuchas, they say there're voices in their heads that won't go away and are the souls at the back of their mind pressing on their own trying to gain dominance."_ Ichigo started rubbing his chin in thought when he saw the display of Uryuu standing in front of him holding a bow constructed of reishi.

"See Kurosaki, you are no match for me. As it is now, you are but a mere hindrance to this invasion." Uryuu stated to Ichigo who just raised an eyebrow in turn and pulled a pendant out of hiding from behind the collar of his t-shirt. It looked almost exactly like Uryuu's except by the looks of it only the centre of it retained its shiny metallic light blue while the edges had darkened to a black and ruby red by something that seemed to have crystalized over the top of the pendant. "How did you get that?" Uryuu stared wide eyed at the pendant Ichigo held in his hand having now detached it from the longer necklace chain that connected to the wrist sized chain that looped around the pendant.

"This was my mother's." Ichigo said holding out the pendant for Uryuu to see. "Although the crystal like material wasn't there when I first got it, it only began to grow after my extended stay in the hollow realm, Heuco Mundo."

That statement almost caused Uryuu to topple over as he turned white at not being able to imagine the torture it must have been at just twelve years of age an stuck all by himself in the realm of hollows. He had heard about when Ichigo went missing but he didn't know where to. It was amazing that Ichigo pulled through as well as he did, Uryuu would have been a wreck, he wasn't even sure he would have survived a year and a half. Ichigo had to be a true Quincy after all they were one of the only beings that could pull in enough reiryoku to use it as a food substitute, yet his techniques that Uryuu had observed so far were nothing of the kind. Similar yes, but altogether different.

"Then that material," Uryuu began, "that's growing on the pendant feels all too similar to that of a hollows, you must have subconsciously used the pendant to boost your capabilities and the pendant acted as a filter only allowing the clean energy to enter your body as nutrients. If used to boost your strength instead I have no idea what would have happened." Uryuu left out some information thinking to himself that it might mean that Ichigo could attain advanced Quincy techniques such as Blut Vene/Aurterie. "That material must be crystalized hollow reiryoku." _"No doubt Urahara would want to see it"_ "It could potentially boost a Quincy's power tenfold if used correctly. Could…could I try use it?" Uryuu asked Ichigo.

Ichigo pondered for a moment before nodding his head, "Just give it back." Ichigo said handing the pendant to Uryuu.

"Hey what are you doin' guys?" Tatsuki said walking over to the two. That was when she noticed Ichigo handing his pendant over to Uryuu. "Now I really want to know."

"Uryuu thinks my pendant will give him a power boost and just wants to try it out, I said yes." Ichigo said looking at Tatsuki who eyed him for a second before turning back to Uryuu.

Uryuu placed the pendant on his wrist and went about activating how he normally would by pumping some of his reiatsu into it and helping it form the shape of a bow. He was utterly surprised when a black torrent of reiatsu burst forth to produce a black and red wavering bow that seemed to be made of many strands of reiryoku because of the gaps he could see open and closed together by reishi lacing it back together. The string of the bow itself seemed to vibrate with power made of entirely black reiatsu, letting off tiny wisps of reiatsu every now and then.

"This bow is amazing!" Uryuu said observing the main interest in the room right now; even Kukaku had come to see what the fuss was.

Leaning over to the cat on her right Kukaku whispered in a slightly angered voice. "You never told me he married a Quincy! You just told me he married a human!"

"Yes well, people can have the habbit of forgetting things when it seems to have been the norm for the past fifteen years, not that she's around anymore mind you. She died six years ago during a hollow attack of some kind. It was far from any normal attack to have been able to kill a pure blood such as herself." Yoruichi spoke back while observing Uryuu marvel at Ichigo's bow.

Uryuu made a motion to pull back an arrow and an arrow formed on the string of the bow and stretched just out past Uryuu's hand by a few centimetres. Letting it fly Uryuu watched as the arrow rocketed away and went straight through the wall on the opposite side of the room. The hole it made glowed white-hot.

"Hey watch it kid!" Kukaku roared, "Your lucky there was nothing on the other side of that wall…I think."

"I'm very sorry." Uryuu said back in fear of the wrath of Kukaku. "Here Ichigo, you should try use it as a bow, it has great potential. And perhaps as being an honorary Quincy as I am I may teach you a few techniques."

"Thanks but I think I'll use it as it's other form most of the time anyway." Ichigo said reattaching the pendant to his necklace.

"Other form?" Uryu questioned tilting his head to the side a bit for emphasis on the point that he was lost on what Ichigo was saying.

"My fullbring." Ichigo stated to Uryuu. "You'll get to see it later, I promise you that."

* * *

"Alright people, todays the big day, rise and shine sleepy heads." Yoruichi said to all the Shiba houseguests that were still currently asleep struggling to comprehend the words that drifted through the paper doors to their rooms and into their ears. Just a few more minutes were the words that were in everyone's heads although they knew it was futile if they wanted to save their shinigami friend. So everyone rose as required of them and prepared to be launched out of a giant cannon.

* * *

"I still don't trust it." Ichigo stated with his arms crossed and his perpetual scowl as he stared at the contraption in front of him. Well not a contraption really, just a cannon chamber that would inevitably either kill him or save a shinigami that they were here to save.

"Eh, nothing ventured nothing gained, right?" Yoruichi stated coming up beside Ichigo who had yet to fully face the fact that he was indeed about to step into a giant cannon and essentially be the munition.

"I guess so…" Ichigo trailed off with his hand on his chin completely unaware of the fact that all the others in this little mission were already stepping inside the chamber.

"C'mon Ichigo we're leaving!" Tatsuki called out.

Ichigo turned and to his horror Ganju was there as well all dressed and ready to invade the seireitei with them. "What the hell is he doing?" Ichigo pointed at Ganju as he made his way over causing everyone to sigh because yet again Ichigo had failed to listen to the reason on why Ganju was coming with them.

"He's gotta guide the cannon ball." Karin answered pointing at the scroll Ganju was holding with him looking mildly annoyed at Ichigo.

"Then what about Yoruichi he hasn't even used a cannon ball yet, how the hell are we supposed to know the cat will survive."

"I have complete faith in the rest of you keeping the cannon ball stable, there should be no need for me to interfere." Yoruichi said smugly holding her head high. "However should yourselves prove to be unable of the simple task I'll help contribute. You should probably form the cannon ball now anyway unless you really do want to be blown up."

"Fine." Ichigo muttered placing his hand on the reishūkaku pouring some of his reiatsu into it trying to be careful enough to not pour much hollow reiatsu into it causing the shell to destabilize.

The entrance to the cannon closed and the sound of Kukaku chanting could be heard before a monstrous force launched them into the air.

* * *

(Seireitei: Sixth division)

Alarms were sounding everywhere as one Renji Abari woke from his sleep having once again gone drinking with the Fuku-taicho of the tenth division, Rangiku Matsumoto. Footsteps could be heard pounding through the compound of the sixth division as the people of the division prepared for the worst as reports came in of a flying object making it's way to the seireitei.

"Abari Fuku-taicho" a division member said standing outside the door to his room.

"Yes." Renji replied as best he could trying not to sound as though he had just been drinking the other night trying to forget that he just brought his best friend back for execution.

"The seireitei is being prepared for invasion s-" that's as far as the man got before a thunderous crack echoed throughout the seireitei a blue chrome shell colliding with the barrier surrounding the seireitei.

"The hell was that!" Renji burst out of his room still fully clothed from the night before looking up into the sky searching around for a moment before his eyes landed on what he deemed the impossible. A blue orb was slowly making its way through the barrier.

It was only when Renji paid closer attention that he noticed the massive reiatsu signature coming from with in the orb that even he could not miss with his poor sensing skills. The signature was jumbled and constantly shifting as though there were multiple targets inside ready and waiting eagerly to break through.

"Impossible." Renji heard the unseated officer next to him whisper out as he also observed the sight before him as well.

* * *

(Repentance cell)

All Rukia could see as she looked out her window was the rising sun in the distance but she knew better if she were to go by the loud noise and sudden increase in brightness that died down almost as quickly as it came.

The alarm bells that sounded just re-enforced the plausibility behind her hypothesis. The ryoka had invaded.

"You idiots." Rukia whimpered realising that Karin had in face come to save her and with help if she were to go by the conversations the two guards in front of her prison cell were having.

* * *

(Cannon ball)

"I thought you said it would be smooth sailing from here on out!" Ichigo roared at the cat that seemed to be comfortably perched on the shining blue orb that all current travellers were pouring their reiatsu into.

"I lied." Yoruichi said with a shrug of indifference.

As banter went back and forth between the two they were slowly but surely making their way through the barrier, lightening crackling in the air warming them. Due to Ichigo's frustration however small cracks were beginning to appear on the reishūkaku as his reiatsu output increased.

It was then at the precise moment Uryuu's head just made it through the barrier the shell broke singeing the tip of some of his hair. Now suspended in mid air by some strange force the group was slowly floating apart as Uryuu tried to make an assessment of how injured he was only to sigh in relief noticing that he wasn't injured in a way that would hinder his capabilities.

"Quick everyone join hands we don't want to get separated!" Yoruichi shouted. "We don't have much time before the residual energy in the stasis field expels pushing us into the seireitei."

Everyone seemed to grab the person directly next to them except for Chad who seemed to already be long gone out of anyones reach, before they went for the others only to be out of reach. Their acceleration techniques weren't working either as the stasis field as Yoruich called it was keeping them from getting anywhere near each other only allowing the current pairs to stay together.

"It's time!" Yoruichi said looking at the growing brightness at the centre of the force field before it released a massive gust of wind having compressed it at the centre shunting each individual pair off to a new location.

* * *

Ichigo and Tatsuki landed side by side in crouched positions looking down at the ground. Rising steadily They looked around them trying to figure out where they were exactly.

"Uh Ichigo…" Tatsuki trailed off looking at a set of doors in front of her.

However as Ichigo turned around he realized that it wasn't the abnormally large doors that she was looking at but rather the number painted on them in black ink.

"Ah crap." Ichigo slapped his hand aginst his face seeing the great big number two plastered to the door.

* * *

Karin who had the unlucky misfortune of being paired with Ganju spat out a mouthful of sand as she rose to the surface of the newly created sand pit courtesy of Ganju Shiba blatantly stating that he just saved their lives.

The sand pit in Karin's opinion defied all logic at it too should have been just as hard as the solid ground around them when they collided much like when one would belly flop into water only to feel the hard stinging sensation as though they had themselves pricked by a million needles all over their front.

"Well, well, who do we have here, two of the ryoka I presume." A masculine voice sounded.

Turning Karin and Ganju were greeted by the sight of two shinigami. One wore a standard shihakusho, was by all appearances bald, makeup beside his eyes and had his katana blade still in it's sheath gripped in his hand while resting over his shoulder.

"Names Ikkaku Madarame, and I'll be your opponent." Ikkaku said before breaking into some dance while singing something about being lucky.

"While my colleague here dances in a disgusting fashion I shall introduce myself to you as well." The man behind Ikkaku stated in a more feminine voice coming forwards. He himself was dressed in a shihakusho as well but as additional accessories he wore an orange turtleneck. He had silken black hair and feathers decorating his right eyebrow, tow being red the other yellow. "I am Yumichika Ayasegawa."

* * *

Chad landed on the ground with a great thud trying to bring into play what Ichigo had taught him about his abilities and slow down his descent so he wouldn't cause much noise. His impact as great as it still was even with him slowing down barely phased the giant at all as he quickly left the area not wanting to be found as he slid down a narrow alley way that he barely fit through.

It turned out that Chad had left just in time as a shinigami patrol sprinted around a corner stopping where light crack marks were present on the ground as though something had landed heavily or something really big had passed through.

"Where'd the ryoka go?" were the several voiced thoughts of the shinigami not noticing Chad peering back through the alley way he had just gone through seeing all the shinigami acting in confusion.

Turning around Chad looked in front of him and realized that he was in a giant labyrinth.

* * *

"Are you ok Ishida-kun?" Orihime looked on sheepishly at the crumpled form of Uryuu, Orihime having only activated her shield at the last second not knowing whether or not Uryuu could slow his fall through the use of Quincy techniques as she herself had slowed to a stop just above the ground through advanced use of bringer light.

"I'll be fine." Uryuu said pulling himself up as quickly as he could which was surprisingly fast considering the fact of how hard he landed. "Come on we need to go before we're found. Use your technique to jump onto the roofs and we'll use that as travel to get away for now since it's still only early morning. We'll travel by foot later."

As soon as he was finished Uryuu rose to his full height having recovered and took off in a leap onto the nearest building Orihime not far behind.

* * *

NOTE: About Ichigo's second release. I thought I should explain how he acquired it in the first place and what it does.

Basically a regular fullbringer uses an object of affinity to boost their own power. Said object could be a part of your own body however this prevents you from attaining a second release unless a second separate object of affinity is gained (This is highly unlikely though. Needs to be apart from the body. Chads second arm does not count.). A body-based fullbring has the potential to be slightly stronger than a regular fullbring at first though.

Second release is only possible being acquired by individuals that use an external object such as Ichigo's pendant or Tatsuki's gloves. Once full mastery of the first release has been attained it will become possible to acquire the second release. However ones soul must be exercised thoroughly through the continuous use of full bring (Can be accelerated by being in hollow reiatsu drenched environments E.g. Heuco Mundo) causing a disruption by higher percentage of hollow reiatsu use than human reiatsu by at least 20% (Most fullbringers are at 40%-50%. Will have to reach at least 70%+ in order for it to work) in their object of affinity and their own soul basically having their soul temporarily fuse with their object of affinity not only drawing out the objects soul to it's full potential but drawing upon their own soul as well becoming somewhat of a zanpakuto during this period as the object will have the actual wielders soul coursing through it and not just it's own that is being amplified.

This will cause some markings (Often in tribal like markings of sorts. Helical patterns on arms and legs are more prominent than other kinds) to appear on the fullbringer's body (Ichigo's marking on his arm) overall increasing their natural strength as well without the need to power up. These markings are actually only prominent in one area when not using fullbring (place does not change overtime, the markings will always be the same, they are visible to regular humans). Just because the markings appear in one spot does not mean that that part of the body will be stronger than the rest, it is simply a sign that one has gained the second release. The markings spread under the skin throughout the entire body acting as a secondary nervous system that can increase:

Reaction time

Strength (By unconscious supply of reiatsu throughout these pathways),

Speed

Toughness of body allowing one to sustain greater hits (once a fullbringer has attained the secondary release and has the markings it is assumed that their body will be able to shrug off getting hit by a car at cruising speed, let's say 60-80Km/h, within a few minutes or less, assuming that the fullbringer didn't have time to re-enforce their defense further or was caught by surprise. Blades that are not enhanced by reiatsu by a decent amount or haven't the necessary force behind them will bounce of the skin unable to penetrate it)

Increased healing capacity (Can regrow a lost limb over the course of a few days, minor cuts and bruises disappear in seconds).

Enhanced senses

During first and second phase these markings become visible on the entire body (May not be visible on clad types).

Deactivation of the second release can only happen when the user stops stimulating their own soul through the use of 'pulling' on their soul or is low on reiryoku. So if one were to drop their object of affinity the fullbring would still be active albeit a fair bit weaker than if they were using their object of affinity to attack.

Through advanced use of fullbringing ones own soul (possible because of second release), one can tamper with their **Saketsu** (the booster to the **Hakusui**) and **Hakusui** (which is the source of spiritual power.) (The two work in conjunction with each other to fuel a beings reiatsu) to amplify the amount of reiatsu that is produced allowing a similar effect of a bankai output increase (Think of it as Ulquiora's segunda etapa). However incorrect use can damage or destroy the Saketsu and Hakusui either leaving the user powerless until both have repaired themselves or completely powerless for the rest of their lives and afterlife unless they become a hollow as these creatures seem to be missing both as the hollow hole tends to originate on the place where both the Saketsu and Hakusui usually are (the main body or chest region).

Because of the second release's effects on the body the first release becomes capable of taking on a captains shikai at full power, as well as low use of bankai from a regular captain. Ukitake Jushiro, Retsu Unohana (Yachiru), Shunsui Kyouraku, and Yamamoto Genryusai DO NOT COUNT. They are the most powerful captains in the seireitei and can easilt defeat the lower captains Bankais except for Zaraki, he's just insane. Second release allows for easier combat against bankai through enhanced speed and attack. It does not necessarily multiply ones power tenfold like a bankai. If you go by what I have in earlier chapters I'd say around quinto/5th espada (Merodi's level) If not a little more powerful

NOTE 2: No Ichigo will not be using Quincy powers


	18. Chapter 18

I updated the fullbring abilities list in the previous chapter and please take note that the abilities list may not be complete yet so I may change around a few things however unlikely from this point onward. It's just before the last paragraph on the first note.

* * *

(Ichigo and Tatsuki)

"I see the ryoka think they're brave enough to think that they could possibly take on a captain and an entire devision." A womans voice called out.

Suddenly several people in ninja like body suits surrounded Ichigo and Tatsuki making them tense in preparation and begin to leak some reiatsu. All of the ninjas were on the roofs above them trying to take advantage of the height they were given by the labyrinth walls of the seireitei.

"Capture them if possible." Was the final sentence that came out of the womans mouth still not having made an appearance but obviously close by before all the ninja garbed assassins leapt forward drawing their concealed blades and slashing out at the enemies muscle ligaments to disable them only to hit…nothing. A green trail of light coming into view in the corner of one of the assassins eyes before the full force of Tatsuki's foot buried into his face propelling him through a wall of the labyrinth knocking him out cold.

"C'mon you gotta be better than that." Tatsuki taunted them. Getting no response from the trained assassins Tatsuki sighed and leapt forward activating her fullbring, her gloves turning into white gauntlet like pieces of armour with blades protruding from either side at the wrists and extending forwards just beyond her knuckles by about five centimetres.

The blades glowed a dark blue before Tatsuki punched forward before she reached her intended target in order to put them off for a split second as two reiatsu projectiles launched forward. The ninja leapt out of the way just in time as the shots trailed past nicking the side of the presumably female ninja and cutting her open and a small trail of blood appeared.

"Probably a good thing that you dodged that. Your insides would have been all sliced up." Ichigo said standing in the path of the ninja grabbing her head in his hand before knocking her out with a punt to the head.

"You could have gone a little easier on her Ichigo." Tatsuki said waving it off going to finish the rest of the opponents, Ichigo having already demolished a small portion of them through the use of quick and accurate strikes to vital points although not with lethal force assuring that they wouldn't be able to get up for some time while Tatsuki fought off her own.

Some time later Ichigo and Tatsuki looked around them seeing second division personnel scattered all around them, some cradling a part of their body if they weren't already unconscious.

"You could have gone a little easier on some of them you know." Tatsuki said in short breaths seeing all the collateral damage he had managed to cause when he didn't quite hit his intended target as the small bursts of reiatsu he released when his fists collided made small indents in the ground and walls when he got too close.

"They didn't stand still, what else was I supposed to do? Run away?" Ichigo looked on horrified as though he was about to be denied something he thoroughly enjoyed.

"That would have been the logical descision." The womans voice answered the question not caring as to whether or not she was supposed to. "Omaeda, take care of them. It seems as though they are a little too skilled for the others to handle. I'll watch." The woman's voice was closer this time and appeared to be coming from on top of the wall of the second division.

Ichigo and Tatsuki both looked up to see a man and a woman standing there. The woman had navy blue hair that was braided in two strands that were also wrapped in bandages and at the ends of both was a golden ring that was tied to it. She was relatively short and wore a sleeveless shihakusho and white haori over the top, giving reason to believe that she is the current captain of the division. Her zanpakuto was a wakizashi strapped horizontally across her back.

The fat and rather ugly man beside her the two could only assume was the man called Omaeda and was confirmed the moment he dropped down in front of both Ichigo and tatsuki with a thud as his feet hit the ground just going to show how heavy this man in front of them was. He wore a standard shihakusho with a purple frill coming up and around his neck. A gold necklace was present on him as well as some other small pieces of jewelry and his zanpakuto was a regular katana strapped to his left hip.

"You know, for a division that's supposed to be masters of stealth, you aren't doing a very good job." Ichigo commented.

"We simply needed to assess how powerful you are to deem whether or not you are a threat to the seireitei. That was the first part. The second is to bring you in for interrogation and possible execution should we find information you possess or your reasons for invading the seireitei too hazardous to be allowed to be brushed off." The captain said stoically not betraying any hint of emotion.

"Well then, if you'll excuse ourselves." Ichigo mock bowed before turning around and beginning to walk away. "I'd rather avoid interrogation and possible death."

Ichigo was halted in his tracks when a blade suddenly appeared in his vision just below his chin and ready to slit his throat, the small hand of the captain gripping the hilt while the other gripped onto his arm to assure herself that her target wasn't escaping easily.

"Ichigo!" Tatsuki shouted in a worried tone.

"You won't be going anywhere ryoka." The captain said breathing down his neck.

* * *

(Meanwhile)

"…Lucky, lucky." Ikkaku finished with a pirouette having finally finished his song and dance much to his friends and observers joy. Looking at the two that were still in the sand pit his expression grew a little frustrated. "I just did my lucky dance and you two are still in the pit! Get out and fight why don'tcha."

Stepping out of the sand pit Ganju became a little scared and thought about running away, at least until Yumichika began to talk. "I can't face a child. So much beauty that could be unlocked. You can face that barbarian over there," Yumichika said pointing at Ikkaku while looking at Karin, "while I get rid of this abomination. I can't stand to see his ugly face any longer."

By this point Ganju was quaking in his tabi at the thought of having to face an enemy that had a tonne more reiatsu than himself.

"Mmm, ok." Karin said stepping forwards drawing her blades. "Name's Karin, nice to meet you."

"Sure you're not scared?" Ikkaku asked sporting a grin drawing his own blade.

"Yeah I am, I just gotta keep my eye on the ball." Karin said causing Ikkaku to gain a slightly confused look at this statement obviously not knowing Karin's love for soccer.

"Well whatever," Ikkaku brushing off her statement not particularly caring about whether or not she was referencing something, "Just before we start, I should probably let you know that I'm the third seat of division eleven, the strongest division."

By this time Ganju had been so horrified of all that had been happening that he had scampered off like the coward he was with Yumichika close behind trying to cut him up and rid the world of the abomination.

Ikkaku lunged forward his sheath in his left hand and his katana in the other holding the blade high for a possible overhead strike while the other seemed to be drooped to his side unneeded of being payed attention.

Karin raised her left blade at an angle to divert the blow and lessen the force while striking forward with her right. However she failed to notice Ikkaku's sheath in time as it came forwards from his side and rammed into just above Karin's gut preventing her from scoring any more than a tear in Ikkaku's shihakusho as she was nocked backwards spitting out a globule of blood. Something had hit her lungs and she was now slowly bleeding from her mouth.

"I'm ambidextrous," Ikkaku stated, "gotta keep an eye on both of my blades." Ikkaku struck out again with his sheath now in his right hand having swapped it over and went for Karin's blade that was still supported in the air to make her focus on that point instead. To his surprise though Karin disappeared and reappeared behind his right shoulder in what he would think to be a shunpo although there was a slight noise accompanied with it as well as a slight shift in reiatsu that he was unable to detect.

Karin jabbed forwards and scored a hit imbedding her zanpakuto a few centimetres into his ribcage, the wound amplified because of the momentum from him turning to his right to try and block the strike with his sheath, the only thing preventing the Karin's sword from having completely impaled him. He went to strike with his sword as he continued to twist around but Karin leapt back making Ikkaku over swing leaving his left open and hands together yet again switching the blade and sheath and angling his blade for his own jab under his arm, the sheath pointing in the opposite direction as Karin rushed forwards hoping to get a strike in the rapidly closing window.

Karin saw the blade glint from light reflecting off of the blade and stopped her attack prompting Ikkaku to do the same and completely face Karin. "You're good. This is fun." Ikkaku grinned.

"Heavens weep, Oceans rage Akarui umi no tsuki" said and her blades shined a little obscuring them from view before revealing their new form not having changed much in the way of form or shape. Karin swung her blade around and shouted "Mikadzuki Nami" and a thin sheet of water barely visible due to its transparency shot forward covering the entire span of the narrow alleyway bringing down a section of the walls.

Ikkaku thinking that he could block the strange attack hold his blade forwards hoping it would disperse right around it. However to his surprise the water just melded around the blade and cut deeply into Ikkaku's chest knocking him off of his feet and onto his back.

"Crap." Ikkaku groaned getting back into his feet. _"How the hell is my shikai supposed to go up against that!"_ Ikkaku slammed the end of his hilt into his sheath and activated his shikai in hopes of being able to win. "Grow Hozukimaru" in a quick burst of light Ikkaku's blade and sheath disappeared and was replaced by a spear with only a short blade at the front of it only being equivalent to about the size of his hand and was only bladed on one side, a red tuft of fur on the other end of the spear.

Karin coated her blades in a layer of water sharpening her blades to the max and rushed towards a grinning Ikkaku not realizing that the spear could have other capabilities other than a mere jabbing device.

Ikkaku grabbed the end of his spear and swung it around from his right. Karins left blade went up to block when Ikkaku said "Split Hozukimaru" and his spear split into three equal sections, chains linking each one together. Karin's blade hit the chain closest to Ikkaku cutting almost all the way through one of the links. The other end of the spear swung around and threatened to cut into her face, however as soon as the spear had split she'd already begun to raise the blade in her right hand up and used that to parry the blow outward and back around her in the opposite direction freeing her the blade in the spears chain links.

Unable to redirect his spear Ikkaku had to grab the bladed end before it cut into himself allowing Karin to bring around her right arm that was used to parry the spear and slice through Ikkaku's side severing most if not all the muscles in the left side of his back and chest and causing him to bleed profusely out of the wound having struck many important blood vessels.

Ikkaku fell over already having tried to remain standing with the life threatening wound in his side for a few moments but succumbed to blood loss and felt too weak to move. "Ahh shit, being beaten by a little girl, not quite how I planned my day to be."

"Wait…you planned your day? You didn't exactly sound like the kind of person who plans their day." Karin said almost confused as the battle was now over and the guy in front of her was complaining that his day didn't go well.

"Yeah, now as the winner what do you want?" Ikkaku said drearily.

"Where's Rukia?" Karin stated in all seriousness sealing her zanpakuto and placing her blades in their sheathes.

"Wait, how many are there of you?" Ikkaku said clearly confused. The question clearly meant that she was here to save Rukia…but you would need an army to even hope of surviving in the seireitei unless all of the invaders were of fuku-taicho level or more. Seeing the state of the girl before him he hadn't managed to cut he was almost sure that it might be possible if all of the others were even more powerful. Even though he hadn't managed to cut her he was sure the internal damage was close to the damage done to his own body as Karin looked to be barely holding herself together as well clutching just above her stomach, hunched over slightly. When he rammed her he might have also caught a few ribs in the attack breaking them. Ikkaku smirked mentally, the girl had done well by the looks of things. Not being hindered by that injury and fighting him of with even more vigor than before the attack took a lot of strength.

"Well if you c…" Karin stopped to cough up some blood allowing the injuries to finally get to her, "if you count me as well seven and a half, the half being the cat."

At this Ikkaku broke out laughing but stopped almost as quickly as he began because of his sudden movement aggravating his injuries. "I kinda expected a little more than that, but what can ya do, ehhh, Rukia's in the repentance cell now. The big white tower, you see it."

Karin looked up and saw it directly ahead of her, "Yeah I see it."

"Just head that way and you'll find her in there. Although I must ask before I pass out, which one of you is the strongest?" Ikkaku asked curiously to see if the girl he faced was the strongest.

"Probably my brother. He has orange hair and is fairly tall." Karin answered.

"What's going on here? Ahh, someone's injured! Hold on, I'll heal you!" a timid voice came from behind Karin whom immediately leapt away failing to see that it was a weak little boy by the name of Hanataro who was of the forth division.

"Eh, where's she going?" Hanataro said perplexed that she had run away from one of the healing division

* * *

(Back with Ichigo and Tatsuki)

In the woman's grip Ichigo felt the blade now gently pressing against his throat. The pendant that he usually hung around his necklace was actually around his right wrist now as he had placed it there just before the launch in the flower crane cannon.

Reinforcing his skin with reiatsu Ichigo used bringer light to surprise the woman as he used it to accelerate his left arm that wasn't gripped by the captain and elbow backwards into the woman forcing her back off of Ichigo. The blade in the woman's hand was only applied with enough force to make Ichigo gain a light cut even though he was already reinforcing his skin. The woman must have at least a high degree of reiatsu control to have done even that by the way she was forced off of Ichigo.

The woman growled lightly in response to Ichigo's resistance but then stopped and looked a little wide eyed at the spot she had cut Ichigo the wound already closing over as he turned around to face her.

"I'm surprised you managed to cut my skin," Ichigo stated to the surprised captain, "but you wouldn't be a captain for nothing now would you."

"That should have cut through the artery in your neck and only hollows regenerate. What are you?" the woman said with narrowed eyes.

"Just a human that's come here to save a friend." Ichigo said casually.

"Human! How did a human get into Soul Society?" she demanded.

"Some shop keeper." Ichigo replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Hmm, very well then, I'll find out more from the girl if you're refusing to answer in detail. But not before I kill you." The captain threatened.

"You can try, but I don't think that you'll succeed."

Knowing that the human wasn't going full strength yet and she knew she was no where near either the captain raised her reiatsu output before speaking one last time before she struck. "I am Soi Fon, Taicho of the second division."

* * *

I'm having trouble coming up with a name for Ichigo and Tatsuki's fullbring, so if anyone has any ideas could they tell me please. Thanks.


	19. Chapter 19

Just to let you know why I didn't have Ikkaku use any ointment. I'm pretty sure he only uses it once in the entire bleach series so why show it if it's only going to appear once, especially for something so minor.

* * *

(2nd Div.)

Ichigo was in a bit of a predicament at the moment. He was currently facing off with the Taicho of the second division, and to say he wasn't having trouble would be pushing it. From the moment the petite captain had struck he had been on the defensive simply because of the ludicrous speed that the captain was travelling at. To say it was surprising the at the least, he had expected his speed to be the turning tide of the battle as he had yet to use his second release, the captain as well.

Her two hit kill shikai was a pain in the ass to deal with as she had already scored a mark on his right cheek up towards his eye attempting to go for a one hit kill headshot to end the battle quickly had it not been for Ichigo's honed reflexes and activation of his fullbring to save his life.

* * *

(From the beginning)

Soi Fon had just finished announcing her name and status to the orange haired teen having sheathed her blade as well, and her image was now shimmering in slow motion as she instantly leaped into a shunpo. Ichigo prepared himself for the captain; she looked to be no pushover. The captain's image reappeared and Ichigo went to block with both hands despite such a close attack was launched from right in front of him. Ichigo barely made it to block her left fist from colliding with his face as her right leg instantly started coming around in a kick hitting Ichigo in the side of his ribs making a cracking noise reverberate in Ichigo's eardrums as he heard his own ribs snap under the force of the captains kick.

Surely she wasn't already going all out? But then again this was a human body he was in, it was expected that his own body be weaker than that of a shinigami, but still, surely he couldn't be this weak when compared to a captain.

Ichigo was sent through the division compound gate and tumbled along the ground groaning in pain as he tried to shove as much reiryoku to his wound as he could and heal it as fast as possible. Ichigo got back to his feet and saw Soi Fon calmly walking through the now smashed gate smirking a little although barely noticeable.

"Is that all ryoka?" Soi Fon taunted, "If so it would seem that I was wrong to worry about little insects invading the seireitei."

Ichigo stood back at full height and everyone heard as his last rib snapped back into place drawing a disgusted look from Omaeda as he saw the whole of the small conflict just there and then. Tatsuki had watched as well and was pleased that Ichigo hadn't been more seriously injured otherwise he might end up losing. However, not one to be distracted by minor things Tatsuki looked back at Omaeda who looked to be grinning triumphantly as his captain seemed to take full control of the fight right from the first movement. She charged.

Omaeda didn't take his surroundings into account when Tatsuki's right gauntlet collided with his oversized gut and she roared "Blender fist!" the two blades on her gauntlet having released pent up energy straight into him making him collapse onto his hands and knees coughing up blood, being finished in a single strike.

"Sorry about that, you were wide open." Tatsuki said to Omaeda with a small smile hands and shoulders raised has he continued to cough up blood. "Yeeeaah, you might wanna see a doctor about that. Well I'm gonna watch the rest of the fight, you just lie down and try to keep yourself alive, kay."

"F-fuck yo-you." Omaeda heaved in between his now labored breaths having finally spit up enough blood to breath properly. His blood pooled around him and he fell into it finally giving out.

Back where Ichigo and Soi Fon were Ichigo had a green flickering aura now shrouding his form markings becoming slightly visible on his skin as they coiled around his arms and legs splitting into many thin circuit like patterns at the edges as they trailed down his form, his muscles tensing and filling with power.

"What trick is this ryoka?" Soi Fon said narrowing her eyes and lowering her stance sensing danger as she unconsciously began to release even more reiatsu. It was strange, she couldn't feel any reiatsu increase in the boy and yet he seemed to be radiating power.

"Blade of purity." Was all Ichigo said in response to the captain when finally his reiatsu levels rocketed to match that of a lieutenant and a glowing pendant around his wrist released a black smoke that clung to his skin seemingly reducing all the clothing he wore to nothingness and a white gel like substance that covered his entire body as a layer of armour. When it was finished all of Ichigo's skin save half of his neck and most of his face was covered now by either the black substance or that and the whit gel armour. Up past his neck some small markings appeared around his face in tribal patterns. His red and black reiatsu mixed in with the green 'soul energy' to form a dark purple shroud that covered his being and disappeared.

Soi Fon was hardly being outmatched in terms of raw reiatsu release when she raised hers to her maximum and released her zanpakuto as a precaution having drawn it the instant she felt the new danger the teen possessed. "Sting Suzumebachi" the captain said hardly raising her voice to use the release command. Her blade shined for a moment before revealing that there was no longer a blade in her hand but a black and gold gauntlet that only covered her middle finger and knuckle leaving the rest exposed. The gauntlet extended halfway up her forearm giving it a protective armour covering.

"Be prepared ryoka." Soi Fon said trying to hide a hint of fear that she was releasing knowing that somehow his reiatsu release wasn't matching his current level as the air around her felt mildly suffocating but it wasn't crushing her, as though the reiatsu had simply taken up space pushing away the air, like she was under water.

Soi Fon made her decision and struck moving as fast as she could charging for a headshot but missed, the ryoka having moved out of the way just fast enough to avoid death but not fast enough to avoid Suzumebachi's stinger as a black Hōmonka appeared on the right side of his face. Soi Fon smirked thinking that all the power was just for show and said, "If I hit that spot again it's game over."

Moving away from the captain as fast as he could with the use of bringer light he stared wide eyed at what could have been his death a mere moment ago. He was going to have to give it his all if he were to survive and win.

Ichigo held his blade out and charged it with the same green aura as before and swung the blade across in behind him as he leapt into the forest occupying most of the second division releasing a giant torrent of energy which wiped away a few trees and left a trench in the ground trying to hit Soi Fon as she followed him. However due to the captains insane amount of speed she easily dodged the attack due to the distance between herself and Ichigo.

Ichigo stopped on a branch turning around and waited a split second for the captain as she yet again went for his head trying to end the battle. However Ichigo was prepared this time so as she approached flying through the air at incredible speeds he bent backwards at an awkward angle and kicked up with his right foot going into a backflip aiming for the captain's chin. The captain only went to further prove her mastery over hand-to-hand combat and she herself went into her own flip curling around Ichigo's leg and landing on the next tree before initiating her next shunpo.

Landing about a hundred metres away Soi Fon discarded her haori to reveal that her shihakusho was backless and open to halfway down her thighs to give her more freedom or to just prevent problems that could occur should she continue wearing it. _"I can't use direct assault. I'll try something else."_

As soon as the problem was taken care of she dashed to her right, going into the trees obscuring herself from Ichigo's line of sight and suppressed her reiatsu to near undetectable levels causing Ichigo to lose her completely. Ichigo scanned the forest and looked behind him over his left shoulder checking for any danger, his eyes shifting rapidly and the tribal markings becoming more visible as he pumped even more reiatsu throughout his body and to sharpen his senses bringing himself to his first releases limit.

Wham! Ichigo spit saliva out of his mouth the instant he was kicked in his right side.

_"Didn't she go to my left?!"_ thought Ichigo as he was sent barreling through the trees making a few collapse and kicked up dust and dirt as he sustained mild injuries, the captain having yet again smashed his rib cage although his armour sustained and prevented most the damage from reaching his body.

Ichigo stopped himself mid flight and landed on another tree branch having already slowed down from the trees in his path and felt his ribs realigning themselves already. _"Shit! I might have to use second release if this keeps up. I can't end up using too much energy, I can't restore it fast enough for a fight like this!"_

Instinct kicked in and Ichigo shifted his weight onto his left leg kicking out and away from the tree. He realized how lucky he was as the small tree toppled over with Soi Fon standing there for a moment before another dust cloud covered her and she disappeared. Ichigo landed on the ground at the base of a larger tree and stayed alert. He sure hoped all of the other captains didn't have monstrous speed like this otherwise he was screwed.

* * *

(Some other place)

"What an interesting human." A rather disturbing man with make up plastered to his face said as he clacked his fingernails together trying to formulate a plan as to how to capture his new test subject. Looking at the screen in front of him using one of the many monitors he'd placed around the seireitei he just watched as the human in white armour dodged another one of Soi Fon's strikes.

"Nemu!" the man roared all while not taking his eyes off of the screen in front of him.

"Yes father." An emotionless response came as a woman with black waist length hair dressed in a customized shihakusho that had a miniskirt like finish to it rather than two pant legs. She also had a lieutenant badge on her left shoulder with the number twelve on it. No zanpakuto was present.

"Are there currently any more humans in the seireitei like this one, one of the ryoka I mean?" the man said making Nemu look over the man's shoulder and at the screen seeing the human with the strange power.

"I believe so." Nemu responded, "There have been several odd reiatsu's located within the seireitei, Ikkaku Madarame has already been defeated by one and one of the signatures belongs to the missing Shihoin heiress, Yoruichi Shihoin."

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner you imbecile!" the man roared standing up and turning around his white haori fluttering slightly as he did so revealing the number twelve on his back as it was no longer against the chair he was seated in. "Never mind, I must find these other humans for experimentation, out of my way!"

Mayuri just charged down the hallway to a room where he would be able to find the general location of all of the remaining ryoka and slammed the door behind him after kicking all of the room's occupants out.

* * *

(Aizen)

"Do ya still think tha' ya should give him a zanpakuto Aizen-Taicho." Gin said as he watched the fight unfold beside Aizen.

"Mmmm, perhaps." Aizen said leaning onto his hand for support his grin growing in size. "For now we'll just continue to observe."

* * *

(Back at Div. two)

Ichigo leapt upwards using his bringer light to cling to the tree as he did so to run up it having been just too slow to avoid gaining another black Hōmonka on the outside of his left leg. Ichigo growled a little at not being able to avoid the stinger once again, _"At least it didn't strike the one on my face."_ Ichigo turned around still heading away from the place he was just at as he tried to pinpoint the captain. _"Stupid stealth operative, why did I have to get stuck in a fight with you, your dumb Fuku-Taicho was so easy even Tatsuki beat him. But then again her fullbring's ability is pretty brutal. There she is!"_ Ichigo thought as he spotted the petite captain once again slinking away into the shadows.

Ichigo followed pursuit immediately surprising the captain a little as he sent out an attack she barely missed as he flung a pitch-black crescent wave off of his blade outlined by white as he traded power for speed to get closer to his target. The blade of reiatsu had sliced cleanly through multiple tree branches clearing a path for Ichigo to go directly after his target. For the first time since the battle had begun Ichigo was now winning…or so he thought.

Soi Fon's image faded and Ichigo frowned in confusion until he felt a presence behind him. He immediately kicked backwards with his right leg and positioned his left so it was out of reach for the captain to strike. Ichigo scored a hit…with a branch, sending wood chips into the air slightly blinding the captains vision, although enough for Ichigo to avoid death.

Ichigo powered away from the captain to get a fair distance to be allowed the small amount of time he needed to activate his second release. Sure he was keeping up fairly well and his speed too allowed for after images, but the captain he was facing was just that bit faster than him and he needed to go faster to beat her.

A moment or so later Ichigo stopped in the canopy of some of the larger trees that were in the forest and initiated his next release, "Bloody night" Ichigo whispered as his armour morphed to cover more of his body, the colour and appearance of his fullbring changing slightly.

Feeling new strength in his body Ichigo only managed to flex his fingers a little before a foot plowed into the side of his head and sent him hurtling down to the ground and crashed on his front side leaving a relatively large crater from the impact.

_"Gotta pay more attention."_ Ichigo mumbled mentally as he was picking himself up off the ground. The captain now barely giving any time for him to move away as he got up prevented him from getting any further than his chest off of the ground forcing him to initiate lightbringer in a horizontal position escaping the captains fist.

Ichigo backed away into the shadows of the trees and charged up a tsuba attack and let them fly grinning beneath his mask. The thing was, that with his second release, these tsubas no longer just hit things, they cut.

Soi Fon looked wide eyed as a barrage of flying black disks exited from the shadows of the trees slicing things up along the way all while making a distinct whistling noise. She narrowed her eyes after a moment and nimbly dodged every single one of them somehow weaving in and out of the path of attack. Thinking she was finished with the flying tsubas that disappeared into the foliage she panted for breath standing still for a moment when she saw a red light.

Boom! A smoke cloud covered the area Soi Fon was just in as she hurtled out of the cloud slamming into a thick tree denting the wood. She just looked up drearily as she rested in the dent when she heard the whistling noise again, this time from behind her. They were back, but how? Clearing her vision Soi Fon now saw black threads extending out behind her supposedly connected to the flying disks.

Pushing herself out of the tree Soifon jumped out of the way just in time as the tree was sliced to pieces. She was only given several shallow cuts on her body and…a new topless uniform, one of the tubas having sliced a shallow line near her neck cutting through the only piece of fabric holding the front of her uniform up around her neck. Soi Fon didn't notice until she landed on the ground and almost went bright red as well as almost freezing up, only her training as an assassin keeping her from not paying attention to her surroundings if somewhat diminished by the fact that her left hand now held up her clothing.

Ichigo's face if you could see it was a light pink, blood rushing to his face giving him a slight nosebleed. That wasn't supposed to happen.

Now Ichigo may have already slept with someone and seen them naked as well as not really having a reaction to classify him as a pervert or prude but he thought that the woman was rather cute in some aspects.

Ichigo shook his head getting rid of any thoughts about the woman and used her diverted attention to his advantage and managed to get behind her. She was unaware of this fact until it was too late and Ichigo tackled her to the ground restraining the woman so that she couldn't move. Pinning her right arm to the ground as her left was already pinned underneath her. Ichigo moved a hand over the captain's head as she thrashed about in his grip trying to break free but it was obvious he was slightly stronger than her as he just managed to keep her down.

Ichigo pulsed some reiryoku into her head knocking her out cold. Soi Fon's zanpakuto reverted back to its normal state of a wakizashi and the two Hōmonka that were on Ichigo's body disappeared. Ichigo just sighed in relief when he saw that happen and toppled over next to Soi Fon, his fullbring deactivating leaving a very sweaty, sore and tired Ichigo.

"Woo…yeah…I won," Ichigo said doing a little self praising since no one else was around to do it for him. It was then he realised what he was up against when he fought captains, sure this one didn't use her bankai but there must have been a reason of some kind. And people always try to make up for defects in their abilities so he thought he did fairly well.

"Better go back to Tatsuki then-" Ichigo stopped getting up for a moment feeling the full force of the strain he had put on his body now that all the adrenalin had worn off, "shit my legs…" Ichigo trailed off not knowing that he'd just made one very angry captain.

* * *

"Hey Tatsuki, you there?" Ichigo called out but received no reply as he reached the gate of the squad compound oddly enough not having encountered any more ninjas along the way. "Tatsuki!" Ichigo yelled a little louder.

When exiting the gate he saw the Fuku-Taicho of the squad still there on the ground. Thinking he was dead Ichigo kicked him lightly in the side to see if he got a reaction not having enough energy to actually crouch down and poke the guy. Receiving a groan in response Ichigo nodded to himself happily confirming that they hadn't accidentally killed anyone. It was then Ichigo spotted a note carved into the wall of the labyrinth.

When Ichigo read the note it said _"Hey Ichigo it's me Tatsuki. In case you're wondering where I am I thought I'd go ahead and check some things out since you disappeared into that forest a while ago. You should probably leave soon too or you might get caught by the reinforcements that should arrive when the battles over."_ Ichigo sighed and started using lightbringer at a fairly moderate pace to leave.

It was a few minutes later that Ichigo finally detected reinforcements arrive at squad two to heal the injured and take care of the ryoka, but he was long gone. Frowning, Ichigo realised that he had still yet to catch up with Tatsuki, even stranger yet he couldn't sense…her…anymore.

Ichigo panicked and tried to lock onto her reiatsu trail and found himself being led to another division compound.

* * *

(Moments before)

"Give up little girl. If you do I promise to limit experimentation to three times a day." The man with the face paint said as he approached Tatsuki who was cowering against a wall having been struck by the hideous blade he held in his right hand, which Tatsuki could only assume was his shikai.

_"Why can't I move?"_ were Tatsuki's panicked thoughts as she struggled to get up and run away, tears welling up in her eyes as the madman approached.

"Ahhh, disappointing, it seems like your still trying to move even though it won't work. Why are people so stupid these days?" the man questioned himself looking towards the sky. "My zanpakuto's power is to stop all connections in your nervous system from working. All except for your vitals and those relating to pain." The man said ripping his blade through Tatsuki from shoulder to hip almost cutting her in two while she screamed. "Ohhhh…oops!" the man said looking at the lifeless eyes of the girl before him. "I accidentally killed this one. Oh well, I suppose there are others I could experiment on like that boy with the sword. I'm a little disappointed that Madarame didn't tell me about the person who defeated him though."

"TATSUKI!" a voice roared catching attention of the man standing there.

Ichigo rushed forward and stopped ten metres back from the man with the face paint and then looked between him and Tatsuki having trouble connecting the dots, or rather not wanting to see it with his own eyes. Ichigo looked at the man again and his vision captured the mad grin he was sporting still holding the blade with the baby head as its guard in hand.

"Ahh, you must be Ichigo, my new test subject. How thrilling! A human with unknown abilities just waiting to be unlock-" the mad scientist ceased grinning when a massive wave of killing intent crashed into him, all of it coming from the teen in front of him. "Is there something wrong?" the man said with a quizzical stare.

"Did you kill her?" Ichigo said barely above a whisper clenching his fists and drawing blood because of his fingernails digging so deeply into his skin.

"What's that? Speak up boy." The madman said not quite hearing what Ichigo had said.

"I said, DID YOU KILL HER?!" Ichigo yelled at the top of his voice his reiatsu now reaching levels he never thought they could, the level of captain, if just barely.

"I don't see what the problem is, but yes I did, the girl wouldn't sto-" was all he said when a great big beam of energy resembling a cero erupted from Ichigo, "Oh, that's why." And the madman was hit.


End file.
